Loading...
052300 PK MIN CITY OF SHOREWOOD 5755 COUNTRY CLUB ROAD PARK COMMISSION MEETING COUNCIL CHAMBERS TUESDAY, MAY 23, 2000 8:00 P.M. MINUTES 1. CONVENE PARK COMMISSION MEETING Chair Arnst called the meeting to order at 8:00 P.M. (This followed the annual tours of Old Highway 7 Rest Area, Manor Park, Silverwood Park and Badger Park.) A. Roll Call Present: Chair Arnst; Vice-chair Themig; Commissioners Dallman, Bix and Young; Director of Public Works Larry Brown, Council Liaison Zerby and Acting City Administrator Nielsen. Absent:Commissioners Berndt and Puzak B. Review Agenda Themig moved, Dallman seconded to approve the agenda. Motion passed 5/0. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. Park Commission Meeting Minutes of May 9, 2000 Themig moved, Dallman seconded to approve the minutes as submitted. Motion passed 5/0. 3. MATTERS FROM THE FLOOR There were none. 4. REPORTS A. Report on City Council Meeting of May 22, 2000 Council member Zerby reported that City Council approved the bid for the Vine Hill Road/Covington Road trail. Construction is anticipated to start in July. Residents will be notified. Council has received a letter from a resident regarding the Skate Park stating their opinion that the rest area is a poor choice. Larry Brown reported that Freeman Park Multi-Purpose is out for bid and the bids will be opened on June th 7. PARK COMMISSION MINUTES MAY 9, 2000 - PAGE 2 B. Report on Park Foundation Meeting of May 18, 2000 Commissioner Dallman reported that there were about 6 Park Foundation members in attendance. They went over the brochure and talked about starting a fundraising policy. They did not talk about a buy-a- brick program. This will be on the next agenda. There was discussion among the Foundation members regarding the user fees for the sports organizations. Commissioner Dallman explained to them that the Park Commission would be meeting with each of the sports organizations regarding the user fees later this summer. Commissioner Arnst asked if the Foundation has received any contributions as a result of mailing the brochures. Commissioner Dallman reported that he did not know, as the Foundation Treasurer did not attend the meeting. Commissioner Dallman will also find out who is checking the P.O. box and phone messages. Dallman stated that brochures were handed out to baseball and softball representatives for them to distribute to their players. Acting Administrator Nielsen suggested that giving some of the brochures to the Rotary and Chamber might help. Commissioner Themig mentioned that the next Park Foundation meeting could include discussion about identifying some events they could attend to solicit donations. The field dedication would be a good one to attend. It was decided to put a discussion of community events on the th June 13 Park Commission. C. Response to Adopt-A-Brick Program This will be on the next Park Foundation agenda. 5. REVIEW “TO DO” ITEMS FROM PARK TOURS During the tour of the parks, the following items were found to be in need of attention: Manor Park ? Repair gully at end of black top. ? Playground sign needs to be painted. Silverwood Park ? Remove tree stump by big slide. ? Paint white line on the backboard at tennis court. ? Check on the sign for the green pole at the entrance of the trail. ? Put the post back up at the entrance of the trail. Badger ? Paint the trim around the door of the warming house and the plywood on the cage. ? Electrical connector on the light pole is loose (furthest from the fire hydrant). ? Litter on the side of the hill. ? Bush needs to be removed (next to the enclosed cage on the warming house). PARK COMMISSION MINUTES MAY 9, 2000 - PAGE 3 6. REVIEW LETTER TO SMITHTOWN WEST NEIGHBORS Commissioner’s Arnst and Themig presented a draft letter to go to the Smithtown west neighbors. Commissioner Themig explained that a response card would be included and would basically be a comment card asking if the property owner supported a trail. Council member Zerby suggested that the letter should give a little more history for those residents that are new in the area. The letter and comment card will only be mailed to the residents on Smithtown Road west of the LRT trail. Engineer Brown suggested asking the question on the card, “who is interested in a trail.” Then it gives a tool to get a name and address as to who is interested and they can be approached to see if they are interested in donating their right of way if need be. Also, the letter should explain that the Park Commission is at a point where there needs to be neighborhood support or the Park Commission will have to move the trail resources to another neighborhood that is actively supporting the project. It was decided to change paragraph three, fourth sentence to “At the open house, attendance was low and several residents spoke in opposition to any trail segment along Smithtown.” On the comment card it will ask if they support a trail segment along Smithtown or no they do not support a trail along Smithtown. The card will also include name, address, phone number and a comment section. Postage will be put on the comment card for the residents to mail back. Acting Administrator Nielsen said that the letter and comment card would have to go to City Council for their approval. 7. SKATE PARK A. Discuss the “Seasons” visit Acting Administrator Nielsen explained the new plan of re-routing the traffic, which were concerns stated at the open house. The plan also shows the trail relocated. Commissioner Themig asked if any of the parking spaces were handicap accessible. Nielsen said there could be one handicap parking spot with the other parking spots being 9 feet in width. Nielsen also explained that the new design is a poor plan in terms of traffic flow and crossing movement. Engineer Brown commented that there is a tendency to pull into the first entrances available. Commissioner Themig asked if it could be more of an island instead of a road, which may prevent more vehicles from going into the Seasons. Acting Administrator Nielsen explained that he is trying to save the existing trees. Engineer Brown added that an island would be an inconveniencing those who live at the Seasons. Traffic is one issue that the Seasons residents are concerned with. B. Update on Tonka Bay Nielsen explained that he has no update. He tried to get a hold of Councilmember Judd Mowry since he is the one that made the comment that Tonka Bay is not interested. Nielsen noted that he is not sure if this is the official position of the Tonka Bay City Council. PARK COMMISSION MINUTES MAY 9, 2000 - PAGE 4 Commissioner Bix asked about the rink at Manitou Park. Commissioner Themig explained that the Park Commission is not sure if there was an actual commitment by Tonka Bay. Judd Mowry stated to Commissioner Arnst that the Tonka Bay City Council has not formally discussed the site. Council Member Zerby also explained that Judd Mowry had brought up the expense of asphalt and the storage of the equipment. It was thought that the site could be done with minimal changes. Commissioner Bix feels that the rink would be a better site. Commissioner Bix asked if there was a summary or report from the Youth Coalition. She added that being new on the Commission, she hasn’t seen or heard a lot of support for a skate park. Commissioner Arnst explained that there were several boys, Commissioner Puzak, Jim Hurm, and a group of people from the surrounding communities that began meeting about three years ago. She was not sure if the group has been meeting lately since a site has been found. Commissioner Bix explained that she is not sold on the site. There is a lack of access. She has seen kids crossing over the barrier on Highway 7, rather than using the corner to cross. Commissioner Arnst stated that she does not want to bounce this project from one neighborhood to the next. She supports the Skate Park at that site. Commissioner Arnst said she had concerns about the Commission revisiting this matter to such an extent and second-guessing the hard work of the Coalition without Commissioner Puzak present. She challenged anybody to come up with another piece of blacktop in the 5 cities that was suitable. Badger Park was one area that was brought up. Commissioner Themig wonder if there is an artificial float that can be put down. The equipment could be placed each spring and taken down in the fall. Commissioner Themig explained that he didn’t want to go back and forth with this either, but that he wasn’t involved in any of the consideration of sites. He has concerns about the visibility of the current site. He explained that perception of the Skate Park being at Badger is more visual because there is more traffic on Country Club and County Road 19, and there is more activity around Badger Park as well. Commissioner Arnst asked why there was a need for visibility. Commissioner Themig explained that because of the type of activity, he feels there should be visibility. He stated he wasn’t sure what would be going on and that he didn’t want to predict it. Commissioner Themig reiterated that the kids that may cause problems are a very small minority. His main concern is visibility. Commissioner Young stated that the residence of the Seasons were appalled that the Park Commission would even think of considering a Skate Park without providing supervision. He thought that the Park Commission might be getting a letter from one of the residents to this effect. Commissioner Young went on to explain that the resident recently contacted the City of Chanhassen and they spoke of problems with destruction of the satellites. As a former teacher Commissioner Young can’t imagine the kids well Commissioner Young recommended that the Park Commission controlled without supervision. contact Chanhassen. Commissioner Themig reiterated that the kids that may cause problems are a very small minority. His main concern is visibility. Commissioner Arnst explained that she has contacted Todd Hoffman from Chanhassen and he feels that it is the best dollar that they have put into their parks. Todd Hoffman explained that they did have some problems with litter and vandalism which they have taken steps to resolve. PARK COMMISSION MINUTES MAY 9, 2000 - PAGE 5 It was mentioned that the Manitou site is a lot closer to a senior housing residence than the site that is being looked at now. Commissioner Themig expressed that he would have the same concerns whether the Skate Park is at another area or at the rest area. He is not totally convinced that there is not another site. Other possibilities were suggested, including the basketball court at Silverwood. Nielsen explained that the City of Roseville has an ice rink that they paved and painted white. He also talked to Leah Wyker, who works with parks and recreation in Mound. She stated that set-up and removal is hard on the equipment and after two years they had to replace some of the equipment. She also said that the Skate Park has been successful and that they are going to build a permanent facility. Commissioner Bix expressed concern about accessibility to the Highway 7 site and said the issue of how the kids will get there hasn’t been addressed. Specifically there is the problem of park users cutting through the Seasons. The problem may only increase with the pathway at the Seasons. It was suggested that the Park Commission needs to look at another activity area or possibly turning a tennis court into a skate park. Commissioner Themig said he feels that Shorewood is taking a lot of responsibility and that the other cities are not participating in helping to provide a skate park. Engineer Brown stated that he is hearing two things: 1) Go back and start at square one or 2) Find out through other City Councils if there are paved areas that the Commission is not aware of which could serve as a skate surface. Commissioner Young asked about the tennis courts at Manor Park. He walks that route and hasn’t seen the courts being used there. He asked if there was any idea as to how frequently that court (any other court) was used. Engineer Brown said that if you were to rank the courts Badger is the most used court, then Cathcart and then Manor. He further went on to explain that Manor has been characterized as a quaint little neighborhood park. Commissioner Bix thought it would be useful to know the demographics of the age group likely to make use of a skate park. It was suggested that maybe school property, such as Minnewashta School (close to the LRT), or Excelsior Elementary would be a possibility. Nielsen explained that the further west you get, the notion for it to be a South Lake facility is not close to any of the other cities. Excelsior parkland was also suggested. The first place the coalition went to was Studer Park. The Studer family donated the land to Excelsior and they did not want a skate park there. Commissioner Themig explained that he doesn’t want to undercut all the work that has been done and he realizes that this is what is happening. He expressed that he felt bad that Commissioner Puzak wasn’t able to attend this meeting to participate in the discussion. At the last meeting it sounded like Commissioner Puzak was open to explore the best site. Commissioner Bix stated that she could sympathize with working for three years to try and find a location and then this comes up. The site has all the criteria but there are these other issues that doesn’t feel right for a skate park. Although size of the Highway 7 site is not a problem, access is still a concern. There was further discussion on other potential locations and Shorewood’s role in providing a community- wide amenity for youth. Commissioner Arnst explained the background of the Youth Coalition. She said Commissioner Puzak took the leadership and has a very strong commitment to the youth. PARK COMMISSION MINUTES MAY 9, 2000 - PAGE 6 Commissioner Dallman wondered if representatives from all 5 cities should get together and look at other potential sites. He said he feels that Shorewood is taking on Excelsior’s problem. Commissioner Dallman agreed with Commissioner Bix regarding the danger of kids crossing the highway and jumping the barrier. He would prefer using a tennis court, hockey rink, or another park location. Councilmember Zerby was asked if he had talked to the Council regarding the skate park. He said that he hasn’t talk to any of the Councilmembers but feels if there are a lot of opposition, it is hard to go against. Commissioner Themig reiterated his concern at the visibility of the Highway 7 site. He also has concerns regarding high traffic location, and easy access. Commissioner Arnst stated the Park Commission needs to wrap this up and figure out what the next step will be. Nielsen recommended that the Park Commission should take a look at all the master plans for the parks and review the choices. He suggested they put together the pros and cons of all the sites Commissioner Bix would like to hear from other cities that have skate parks to obtain more documentation. It was asked if Nielsen could contact Leah Wycker of Mound or Todd Hoffman of Chanhassen and meet th with one of them before the June 13 Park Commission meeting. The Park Commission will meet at City Hall at 5:30 p.m. and car pool from there. Commissioner Arnst asked Nielsen how long it would take to get the park maps. Freeman is remote from the other South Lake communities, which we are trying to get contributions. It was explained that Deephaven/Greenwood are supportive of a skate park. It was questioned if Deephaven/Greenwood have been approached for area? The idea of a skate park originated from Shorewood, kids came to Shorewood first, and some of the kids live in Shorewood. Commissioner Themig asked Acting Administrator Nielsen to contact some other communities to see if they have any reports that could be included in the next Park Commission meeting packet. He suggested it should be parks that will have the same equipment size. Commissioner Young thought that the parks would have the same problems, it wouldn’t matter about the equipment size. It would be more like behavioral issues, traffic issues. It was explained that over 3 feet you have to have supervision. And over 3 feet attracts the older kids, different audience. 8. CONSIDER NAME FOR FREEMAN PARK STRUCTURE It was expressed that the Park Commission liked Connie’s idea on naming the Freeman Park structure “Eddy Station.” They also liked the idea of a display inside the building as to the history of the name. Dallman made a motion to recommend to City Council to call the Freeman Park structure “Eddy Station” Young seconded. Approved 5/0. The Park Commission thanks Connie for her diligent research and her humor. It is well appreciated. 9. NEW BUSINES There was no new business. 10. ADJOURNMENT PARK COMMISSION MINUTES MAY 9, 2000 - PAGE 7 Themig moved, Bix seconded to adjourn. Motion passed 5/0. The meeting adjourned at 9:48 P.M. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, Twila Grout RECORDING SECRETARY