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041007 PK MIN CITY OF SHOREWOOD 5755 COUNTRY CLUB ROAD PARK COMMISSION MEETING SHOREWOOD CITY HALL TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007 7:00 P.M. MINUTES 1. CONVENE PARK COMMISSION MEETING A. Roll Call Present: Chair Davis; Commissioner Young, Hensley, Norman, Trent, and Alegi; Public Works Director Brown; Park Secretary Grout; and City Council liaison Woodruff Absent: Commissioner Moonen B. Review Agenda Item 3 D, New Business; Item 4B, Adopt A Garden Update; and Item 4C, Kathe White Request, were added to the Agenda. Young moved, Norman seconded approving the Agenda as amended. Motion passed 6/0. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. Park Commission Work Session Meeting Minutes of March 6, 2007 Chair Davis made a spelling correction on Page 1 Item 2 paragraph three, changing ‘cub’ to ‘curb’. Norman moved, Trent seconded, approving the Minutes of the March 6, 2007, Work Session as revised. Motion passed 6/0. B. Park Commission Meeting Minutes of March 13, 2007 Trent moved, Young seconded, approving the Minutes of the March 13, 207, Park Commission Meeting as presented. Motion passed 6/0. 3. REPORTS A. Report on City Council Meeting Brown reported on points of interest from the City Council meeting, including, the spring clean up contract award requiring items to be dropped at public works as opposed to curbside pick-up. In addition, the Council discussed a CUP for placing the Fire Rescue Power Boat and trucks to be placed at the end of Timber Lane to improve response times. The City authorized the purchase of new financial software to meet the needs of the City and community. Trent asked if any landscaping would need to be done to allow for the presence of these vehicles and boat. Woodruff indicated that he had asked staff at a previous meeting to determine whether there was room to accommodate emergency vehicles along Timber Lane. Planning Director Nielsen reported PARK COMMISSION AGENDA TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007 PAGE 2 OF 8 that there was sufficient room to accommodate the larger response truck on the chained hard pack driveway surface, as well as allow room for a second smaller vehicle to pull off to the side of the road if need be. Based on this determination, Woodruff stated that there were minimal changes proposed for the area, which could include trimming or adding a few steps to the shoreline. B. Update on Arctic Fever Meeting of March 20 – (Chair Sue Davis) Chair Davis reported that Arctic Fever committee had met for their first time this year to recap the event from January, as well as, begin preliminary planning for the 2008 event. She invited interested Commissioners to join their meetings scheduled for the third Tuesday of each month at 6pm, City Hall. C. Update on Music in the Park Park Secretary Grout stated that Famous Dave’s had committed to participating in the event slated for July 13, 2007, with Big Walter. She added that MCE has also expressed interest in running a t- rd ball program at Freeman during the weekdays, and that 3 Lair has proposed two camps for the summer months at the Skate Park. Brown commented that no matter which truck Famous Dave’s brings to the event, it will be a huge draw. He noted that now the City and Commission can begin to focus in on the marketing aspect of the music series. Trent asked who would run the MCE activities this summer. Chair Davis responded by pointing out that MCE would be running the programs in Shorewood parks, including scheduling, registration, and fee collection. She indicated that this program has been very successful in other parks and that MCE is excited about the proposed partnership. Young encouraged the Commission and staff to consider directing some of the activity towards Manor Park, as Freeman always seems to be the focus and Manor is a more centrally located facility. Brown acknowledged that it is unfortunate that this always appears to be the case due to Freeman’s vast amenities. He asked if the Commission felt justified in waiving the usual reservation fees for the MCE programs. Chair Davis felt the City was justified in waiving the fees but could have a conversation with the MCE representative to discuss fees, as well as, various facilities. Chair Davis added that the Three Rivers Park District had done a nice job installing the signs along the trail area, which are beautiful signs. She asked about vandalism concerns. Brown pointed out that the signs were placed high to discourage vandalism and are supposed to be ‘vandal’ proof. 4. PRESENTATION ON GIRLS SOFTBALL FIELDS – JEFF BAILEY PARK COMMISSION AGENDA TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007 PAGE 3 OF 8 Jeff Bailey, President of the MGSA, and Jon Guy, President of the Minnetonka Diamond Club gave a brief presentation to the Commission with regard to the proposed Softball Fields at the Minnetonka High School. Young interjected by asking specifically what they wished to gain by speaking to the Commission. Bailey stated that, while the project is a private effort to raise $1.1 million, representatives are going to various resources to raise both public and private funds for the construction of the girl’s facilities. He noted that the City of Minnetonka had earmarked $95,000 in their 2008 CIP for the fundraising effort. Young asked what sort of funding they hoped to receive from the City of Shorewood and why they approached the Park Commission as opposed to going directly to the City Council. Bailey stated that, while it was not for him to say what was appropriate, the organization is comprised of 600 girls in the area, approximately 35% of which hail from Minnetonka and 15% from Shorewood. Bailey stated that MGSA and the Diamond Club would like to proceed to the City Council with a recommendation from the Park Commission. Bailey summarized their proposal by explaining that the project includes a 4 field complex south and west of the current baseball fields donated by the high school specifically for girl’s softball. He pointed out that they will be adding two higher quality fields to those that currently exist with security fencing. Three of the fields will be intended as girls only softball fields, with the third able to overlap as a soccer field in the fall. Bailey maintained that girls softball which includes varsity, junior varsity, sophomore ball, fast pitch and slow pitch ball have never had home fields of their own and have always been at the mercy of boys sports, or sharing fields with other organizations, forcing girls teams to play all over the place rather than have a home host set of fields. By giving a ‘home’ to girls softball the sport can continue to attract numbers. Bailey stated that this privately funded operation, just one of many in recent years, is an expensive project which admittedly is harder to raise funds for than the boy’s sports. He indicated that the th group needs to raise $160,000 in cash by April 20 in order for the school district to start project construction in June and bond for the remaining funds. He acknowledged that MGSA and the Diamond Club will be continuing to fundraise to pay for this project for many years to come and hope that the 10 neighboring cities which make up the school district will take leadership to support this project as many of their residents will benefit from this endeavor. Hensley asked how many fields in Shorewood are suitable for girl’s softball. Bailey stated that the girls play at 4 locations throughout the district, three fields of which are located at Freeman Park. Jon Guy interjected that the Diamond Sport Club does not have actual players but is a nonprofit ‘booster’ type organization representing 2500 players throughout the district helping to support and build facilities for these organizations. Alegi asked whether the facilities would be available to other players or for pick-up games as opposed to strictly private fields. Bailey stated that the issue of being strictly private would be up to Diamond Club’s scheduling process, as MGSA would be the primary tenant leasing the space for a fee from Diamond Club. PARK COMMISSION AGENDA TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007 PAGE 4 OF 8 Guy pointed out that as in Freeman, when it was opened up to girl’s softball a handful of years ago, the numbers grew. This is the scenario Diamond Club would expect of this facility, if the fields were available ‘they will come’. Young asked whether the facilities would be available to the high school during the day. Bailey stated that the fields would be available to the school distinct by day and Diamond by night. Trent asked for an idea of where the funding has come from thus far. Above the fund designated by Minnetonka in their 2008 CIP, Bailey stated that Bennett family park has committed to $50,000; NFL Alumni association another $10,000; MGSA $10,000; and many other individual commitments. Norman asked if they were hoping for a one time donation or an ongoing commitment from the city. Bailey stated that any donation now or later would be appreciated. He mentioned that the school district would be issuing bonds down the road once the down payment has been made. Woodruff asked what the user fees for MGSA would be. Bailey stated that MGSA would be paying a use fee of $10,000 per year to Diamond Sports. Young stated that this sounded like a large fundraising effort and asked what would happen if the organizations cannot make or meet their end of the bargain. Bailey stated that the debt load would fall upon the school districts shoulders. Young stated that he had a problem with this piece of the proposal. He questioned how, once the facility is built, the fundraisers will keep the enthusiasm from shrinking with regard to ongoing fundraising thus allowing them to fall back on the district commitment. He cited the Eddy Station example as to how this default situation can occur. Guy pointed out that if a default occurred it would fall upon the capital improvement service portion of the school district budget and not upon the education piece. In addition, he acknowledged that the debt service might impact the bond rating of the district, but noted that the individual and corporate sponsorships will grow as well. Alegi asked who uses the boys Veterans fields outside the baseball organizations. Guy stated that the field is largely used by youths in Minnetonka and is not available for outside users much. Chair Davis asked what other communities they would be approaching or make up the 10 surrounding users. Bailey stated that they hope to visit Chanhassen next, followed by Tonka Bay, Deephaven, Wayzata, and Excelsior. He noted his disappointment in Chanhassen’s reception thus far. Norman asked for clarification whether public use would be allowed for pick-up games. PARK COMMISSION AGENDA TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007 PAGE 5 OF 8 Bailey stated that scheduling would occur through Diamond Sports, similar to how the city uses CRR to schedule its facilities for organized users. th Noting the limited timeline, Trent asked what will happen if they do not meet their goal by the 20. Bailey stated that they will need to explore their options at that time. He acknowledged that he would be disappointed in the value and support shown the girls sports if this is the case. The Commission thanked Bailey and Guy for their presentation and the representatives left the meeting. Hensley questioned whether the Commission could even commit to giving to this project and whether it has any additional discretionary funds. Brown stated that, while the Commission has no say so over its day to day budget, it does have its CIP fund that contains a balance of approximately $300,000. This being said, Brown pointed out that the Commission has identified many long term goals in its scoping documents that were recently reviewed and included several dramatic expenditures, including Badger lighting currently out for bid and budgeted for about $95,000. With the long-term goals in mind he cautioned the Commission of imminent shortfalls over the long haul. Young asked whether the Commission could recommend supporting the project without funding it from the parks. Brown stated that the Commission could request the City Council fund from the General fund. Hensley stated that as he listened to the presentation he jotted down the pros and cons as follows; in support, he agreed with promoting and supporting girl’s athletics as a wider community, but acknowledged that the cons far outweighed the pros for the City. As a City the size of Shorewood, Hensley believed they had generously supplied fairly exclusive use of fields for girl’s softball. In addition, he found it uncomfortable using public funds to support a virtually private use of a facility, he did not feel the City to be the right resource for this fundraising effort overall. Finally, Hensley pointed out that while they wish to increase their numbers and capacity, the use of Shorewood’s facilities would not change. Although the facility would provide a need for the school, Norman found it difficult to support a borderline private facility with public funds, especially in light of the fact that as Commissioners, they are charged with overseeing the public domain. Trent stated that, although the feel of exclusivity exists, he felt that as a member of the overall community, Shorewood would benefit and should consider being a part of the fundraising effort even if nominally. Alegi stated that he had two issues with the proposal, first, the exclusivity issue raised by using public financing of a private facility, and second, their lack of a good long term financing or fundraising plan. He felt leaving $800,000 as the remaining balance with somewhat of a flimsy plan for the future or a good grip of how the remaining balance will be paid concerned him. Woodruff stated that, as a City Council member, he would question what other projects within the community might be compromised by offering to support this endeavor. He questioned whether, if the Commission felt they had additional or excess money to spend, if this would be where they PARK COMMISSION AGENDA TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007 PAGE 6 OF 8 would spend it. He was surprised that the Minnetonka school board was on track with this should the funding fail to cover the bonding. Chair Davis stated that Guy is a successful fundraiser and that she, personally, had no problem going to their fundraising breakfast as a citizen and writing a personal check to the association for this private funding project. Hensley stated that he would support the Commission if they felt they should make a minimal donation, but with other issues facing the City where this money would be better spent than throwing $500 at the Diamond sports fundraiser, he would prefer that route. Norman asked if the City has done something similar in the past. Brown stated that the Commission’s charge is with handling the public purpose, and if the proposed exclusivity of these fields offsets that public purpose in their minds they would be warranted in denying the request. Hensley moved, Alegi seconded, to deny the request by MGSA and the Diamond Sports Club to fund softball fields outside the City of Shorewood. Motion passed 5/1 – Trent dissenting. B. ADOPT-A-GARDEN Brown explained that the Adopt a Garden program was initiated as an effort to beautify Shorewood Parks and signage. In recent years the number of those gardens has increased and the costs of filling and maintaining these gardens has also increased, thereby causing many volunteers to spend not only additional time but often times their own money to care for these gardens. In an effort to alleviate this burden, staff made a request to increase the stipend from $50 to $100 for the gardens in the program at the last Council meeting. Woodruff thanked Brown for the summary and pointed out that he had questioned the additional expenditure during the Council meeting and since that time had learned more about the program and urged the item to be discussed this evening. He encouraged the Commission to discuss whether this additional expenditure was appropriate, whether even additional funds were warranted, and who controlled the program and funds. Chair Davis volunteered to work on a sub committee with the volunteer gardeners to evaluate the work they do. She acknowledged that while the stipend was appropriate for many of the gardens, newer larger ones such as the Freeman Plaza garden may require more attention. Brown pointed out that often water becomes an issue, whereas a hose is available at the City Hall and a spigot at Manor Park’s Shirley Rice garden, in other locations, such as Freeman, this is not feasible. With 7-8 gardens in the program, Young encouraged Davis to call the volunteers together to look at maintenance options. Hensley suggested the gardeners keep a log throughout the year as a way of tracking the time and money they use during the year to care for their gardens. D. CATHY WHITE REQUEST PARK COMMISSION AGENDA TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007 PAGE 7 OF 8 Brown informed the Commission that he had received an email request from past Planning Commissioner and Master Gardener Cathy White this afternoon to allow her to make a video with children at Freeman Park demonstrating tree planting. According to her request, they would disturb a piece of ground plant the tree, remove the tree, and fill the hole. As this served no real public purpose, Brown indicated that this seemed to be an odd request to use public land for this video when this could be done in her own yard and recommended denial of the request for use public land for a private use in this matter. Trent moved, Davis seconded, denying the request to use Freeman Park to plant and remove a tree for videotape purposes. Motion passed 6/0. Hensley indicated that he would be happy to provide them a space to videotape and plant a tree on his property, provided they leave it where it is planted. 5. VOLUNTEER TO SERVE ON AN AD-HOC COMMITTEE TO REVIEW HISTORIC ARCHITECTUALLY SIGNIFICANT ACCESSORY STRUCTURES Hensley volunteered to serve on the Committee which is expected to meet roughly twice a year, with the first meeting slated for May 15. Chair Davis moved, Trent seconded, nominating Commissioner Hensley to serve as Park Commission representative to the ad-hoc Historical Architectural committee. Motion passed 6/0. 6. SUMMER PROGRAMS WITH MINNETONKA COMMUNITY ED Grout stated that Meg Low, of MCE, was putting together a summer brochure to debut in May featuring programs in Shorewood. She indicated that MCE was looking forward to handling the registration process and fee collection, as well as, executing programs in the parks at this end of the school district, including end of session pizza party and field days. A perfect fit for the Commissions summer program initiative, Norman recommended staff encourage MCE to consider using Manor Park as one of their destinations. Brown questioned what the down side to this opportunity might be; seeing as how MCE will do all of the coordination, he saw little downside for the city and huge upside potential as a way to achieve one of the Commissions big goals this year. He noted that MCE possess’ a certificate of insurance and would need to clean up after their use as the only details of concern. Hensley moved, Norman seconded, approving the summer recreation program proposed by MCE at Freeman park, subject to MCE signing the appropriate documents and the waiving of reservation fees by the city. Motion passed 6/0. RD 7. RECOMMEND 3 LAIR SKATE PARK CAMP PROGRAMS rd Norman pointed out that, although 3 Lair had proposed two camps this summer, he suggested the Commission stick to one camp this year as a way of gauging interest and ‘getting our feet wet’. Trent pointed out that, as liaison to City Council last month, it seemed to him that the proposition had been warmly embraced by most members of the Council. PARK COMMISSION AGENDA TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007 PAGE 8 OF 8 rd Norman moved, Trent seconded, that the Commission reserve the week of July 23-27 for a 3 nd Lair Skate Park Camp program, while respectfully declining the 2 week option at this time, subject to both parties signing the appropriate documents. Motion passed 6/0. 8. DETERMINE DATES FOR PARK TOURS thth The dates of May 8 and June 12 were reserved for Park Tours. A tour of Badger Park was th moved to May 8 with a subsequent meeting following the tour at Freeman Park. The tour of other th park equipment, unique features, and uses were added to the June 12 date. 9. DETERMINE LIAISON FOR APRIL 23 CITY COUNCIL MEETING Chair Davis volunteered as liaison for 4/23/07. Chair Davis referenced an email received by the Babcock’s with regard to the installation of a park bench at Manor Park. Brown stated that he would defer to the park donation policy and report back. In addition, he noted that Secretary Grout had tried unsuccessfully on several occasions attempted to contact them 1-2 more times before simply putting the resolution on an upcoming City Council agenda and sending them the recognition plaque. 10. ADJOURN Hensley moved, Young seconded, adjourning the Park Commission Meeting of April 10, 2007, at 9:07 p.m. Motion passed 6/0. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED Kristi Anderson Recorder