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04.09.2024 Park Commission Meeting Minutes CITY OF SHOREWOOD 5755 COUNTRY CLUB RD PARK COMMISSION MEETING SHOREWOOD CITY HALL TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2024 7:00 P.M. MINUTES 1. CONVENE PARK COMMISSION MEETING Chair Wenner convened the meeting at 7:00 p.m. A. Roll Call Present: Chair Wenner, Commissioners Hirner, Garske, and DiGruttolo; and City Administrator Nevinski Absent: Commissioner Bahneman B. Review Agenda Commissioner Hirner moved to approve the agenda, as written. Commissioner DiGruttolo seconded the motion. Motion carried 4-0. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. Park Commission Meeting Minutes of March 12, 2024 Commissioner DiGruttolo gave an overview of revisions needed within the minutes. Commissioner DiGruttolo moved to approve the minutes of the March 12, 2024 meeting, as revised, per discussion. Commissioner Garske seconded the motion. Motion carried 4-0. 3. MATTERS FROM THE FLOOR Barry Brown, 6050 Burlwood Court, reminded the Commission that there would be a volunteer event at Freeman Park on April 13, 2024 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon related to buckthorn removal. He stated that, thus far, there are 27 people who have committed to working in addition to a few more people who have said ‘maybe’. He stated that Troop 424 were not able to participate this coming weekend, but have indicated additional dates that they would like to be involved in this effort. He stated that Public Works Director Morreim is planning to follow up with them on various possibilities for working with the troop. He noted that there are currently about 35 piles that are about 3-4 feet high and 6 feet wide that have been stacked and are ready for pick up and believed that following the volunteer event there would be many more piles. He explained that the City Council had recently approved the purchase of seed and had already purchased trees. He stated that he felt that members of the Park Commission should be part of the decision on where those trees should be positioned. He noted that the City has also gotten a Memorandum of Understanding from the University of Minnesota for a location for them to take on an area where the buckthorn is still tall and explained that there had been some discussion about possible signage. He stated that he and Chair Wenner had attended Minnetonka’s buckthorn seminar a few weeks ago where they got a lot of interesting information about buckthorn. He briefly outlined some of the chemicals and their potential dangers that were discussed at the seminar. PARK COMMISSION MINUTES TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2024 PAGE 2 OF 8 Chair Wenner asked if the planting event that had been scheduled for April 28, 2024 was going to be postponed. Mr. Brown stated that it is possible, but wouldn’t know until he had another conversation with Public Works Director Morreim, who felt that date may be too close to the volunteer event happening this weekend. He noted that his wife had mentioned that she had not seen any social media posts on the upcoming volunteer event. He clarified that he had gotten a direct e-mail, but there were no social media posts announcing it for others who may be interested. City Administrator Nevinski stated that he would check with Communications Coordinator Wilson on those communication efforts. Chair Wenner asked about the signage Mr. Brown had mentioned with regard to the test plot for the University of Minnesota. Mr. Brown stated that it would basically be like a street sign that outlines that it is the University of Minnesota buckthorn test plot. Commissioner Hirner asked if there were any rules or processes related to signs. He stated that there are already signs related to the trailhead and the entrance and was afraid that people may start to think that it is not a Shorewood park. He cautioned the City to be careful with the number of signs and all the different organizations that are being referenced so the fact that this is a Shorewood park not be overridden. Mr. Brown explained that he saw this as a marketing opportunity because a prestigious university is coming to the City in order to do testing. 4. NEW BUSINESS A. Commissioner Assignment for Council Meetings April – Commissioner DiGruttolo May – Chair Wenner June – Commissioner Garske July – Commissioner Hirner August – Commissioner Bahneman September – Chair Wenner October – Commissioner Garske November – Commissioner DiGruttolo Commissioner Hirner noted that the Commission typically does not attend the City Council meetings during months where they conduct the Park Tours. City Administrator Nevinski stated that he felt removing some of the Council meeting appearances due the Park Tours would be acceptable. Commissioner DiGruttolo moved to recommend approval of the 2024 Park Commissioner Assignment for Council Meetings, as discussed. Commissioner Garske seconded the motion. Motion carried 4-0. PARK COMMISSION MINUTES TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2024 PAGE 3 OF 8 5. OLD BUSINESS A. 2024 Work Plan Chair Wenner stated that City Administrator Nevinski had summarized the ideas shared at the last Park Commission meeting regarding the 2024 Work Plan. City Administrator Nevinski noted that he felt it would be helpful if the Park Commission would pick their top three of the additional topic areas to focus on for the remainder of the year. He noted that there were a lot of other ideas shared at the last meeting, but it wasn’t very clear to him what their objectives were and explained that it may be helpful to have a bit more articulation around some of those items. Commissioner Hirner referenced Southshore Park planning and noted that he feels that the Commission needed to reach out to the community again and get their input on what they would like to see there. He suggested that they at least start this conversation so staff can get the survey set up and published by the end of the year. He stated that he feels this may be a good thing to put on the August calendar and noted that they had $10,000 budgeted within the CIP for planning. City Administrator Nevinski stated that $10,000 is not a lot of money. Commissioner Hirner stated that if they want to get something done this year he did not think they should wait until the fall. Commissioner DiGruttolo stated that she would argue that the Commission may want to move that topic even earlier on their calendar because August and September will be massive campaigning events throughout the area. She stated that if the Commission wants to get people’s attention for a survey they may want to considering doing it at the beginning of August, at the latest. Commissioner Hirner stated that he thinks they may have trouble moving it up because of the primary election. Chair Wenner stated that she agreed that August would be a good month to discuss Southshore Park planning. She asked if the Commission or staff would be responsible for putting together a survey to garner community engagement. City Administrator Nevinski stated that it is something that would ultimately be done by staff and then published on the website, but there would be discussion by the Commission about the questions that should be asked. He noted that surveys are a great tool but there may be some other avenues of community engagement that they may also want to explore. He stated that he thinks the Commission needs to start some discussion around Southshore in 2024 so that by 2025 they have some idea of what they are trying to do. He noted that he was not sure when they would be able to get those plans into the CIP but they would at least have a concept and a general dollar amount. Chair Wenner asked if the $10,000 budgeted in 2025 for planning would include a community engagement event or if he was saying that the community engagement should happen in 2024. PARK COMMISSION MINUTES TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2024 PAGE 4 OF 8 City Administrator Nevinski stated that he believes that the plan, before former Parks and Recreation Director Crossfield left, was for her to lead that engagement, get a sense of the preferences, needs, opportunities, and potential issues and then bring back some ideas to the Commission, which he feels would be a very helpful place to begin. He stated that then in 2025 they will have some of that data and could perhaps, work with a consultant to give the City a sense of costs if they incorporate everything. Commissioner Hirner stated that was how they have done it in the past and noted that the one thing they did not do last time, for example with Silverwood, was put out a public notice and have a meeting at the location and invite people, such as the senior center folks, to come over and tell the Commission what they would like to see there. He stated that it is not a huge park so he thinks it would be good for people to and take a look at the actual space especially because of the size of the community garden. He stated that if they can get some of this information in 2024, it will be very helpful for actually planning in 2025. City Administrator Nevinski stated that he loved the idea of a pop-up event on site and noted that they may also be able to do something in conjunction with the Music in the Park or Oktoberfest events. He stated that they could start looking for those community events where they could have a presence and get some feedback. Mr. Brown stated that one of things that came out of the volunteer program for the buckthorn removal was an idea raised by one of the dog walkers. He stated that people who frequent the parks are good people to have input on the parks and are usually people who are walking in the parks on a fairly regular basis. He explained that this individuals suggestion was to put a magnetic sign on the poop bag stations to get the City’s message out, which he thought was a reasonable idea and would give visibility to what the City is doing. Commissioner DiGruttolo stated that she liked the idea of socializing it and having many touch points at all of the City events. Chair Wenner stated that she agreed and noted that it sounded like there was consensus to make this part of their agenda for August. City Administrator Nevinski stated that as the City brings the new Park and Recreation Manager on board, with the help of Planning Director Darling, they may begin to formulate some things so they will be ready to go as these events start happening. Chair Wenner asked if anyone else from the Commission had any other priorities from the list put together by City Administrator Nevinski that they would like to see pegged to certain dates. Commissioner DiGruttolo stated that she was not sure it needed to be pegged to a specific date, but she really thinks that the Commission really needs to make the Integrated Pest Management Plan a priority because she does not feel comfortable with where they are, at the current time. City Administrator Nevinski suggested that may be a fall topic of discussion for the Commission because they will have had the opportunity to do the park tours and will have gone through the growing season. He stated that they may also, by that time, they will also have gotten some feedback from the athletic associations or park users. Commissioner DiGruttolo asked if by fall, City Administrator Nevinski meant October. PARK COMMISSION MINUTES TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2024 PAGE 5 OF 8 Commissioner Hirner recommended that they put this on the calendar for November and the SCEC fee structure discussion in October because the Council sets the Master Fee Schedule in November, so the Commission would need to discuss it earlier than that. Commissioner DiGruttolo explained that she had been thinking that they should discuss the SCEC Fee Structure in September because she thought that coincided with the budget discussions. City Administrator Nevinski explained that ideally they want to be done by September because they have to set the preliminary levy in September, but noted that fees and or any potential changes would not have a significant impact on the overall budget because it is an Enterprise Fund. Commissioner DiGruttolo stated that if they move the Integrated Pest Management discussion, she felt that they should move it to earlier in the fall, rather than November. She noted that last year she believes their November meeting was cancelled because of Veteran’s Day, elections, and Thanksgiving. She explained that she really did not want to see this issue fall off again and wants to pin it to a ‘safe’ month and would suggest September or October. Commissioner Hirner stated that he thinks that they may be able to schedule it at the same time they discuss the SCEC fee structure. Chair Wenner stated that she also felt that the Commission would be able to stack a few of these items because she did not believe some of the topics would take up a large amount of meeting time. She suggested that they peg SCEC fee structure and the Integrated Pest Management Plan for September. Commissioner Garske asked if information related to those topics would be readily available by September. He explained that he was talking about information and details that would help add value to their conversation and noted that the last time this was discussed the Commission did not have a lot of content so he felt that they were not able to add a lot of value to the discussion. City Administrator Nevinski explained that the new Park and Recreation Manager will be coming on board this spring, but the City was also without a Finance Director right now, so he was not completely sure what they will be able to pull together by September. He noted that he was not sure it would end up being a big topic though. He stated that he liked the idea of discussing it in October rather than September. He explained that he understands the concerns shared by Commissioner DiGruttolo regarding the November meeting date but noted that the Commission would also have some time in January and February to talk about the Integrated Pest Management Plan. Commissioner Garske suggested that they move the SCEC Fees and round one of the Integrated Pest Management Plan discussion to October. He stated that he thinks that January may be a good time for them to discuss the natural area plan and the ‘other’ topics on the list like education, trees, pollinators. Chair Wenner stated that she felt that the Commission would be seeing a lot more guidance with the incoming Park and Recreation Manager. She stated that she did not personally see a big need to tie many things to specific dates. She noted that the thought she had when she looked at this list was that they have never done anything like natural areas and while they are still in the PARK COMMISSION MINUTES TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2024 PAGE 6 OF 8 parks that may be something they could schedule for September, while the weather was still nice. She stated that she was not sure what the Commission was planning to do with athletic facilities and asked if it was looking at the condition of the fields and things like that. Commissioner Hirner stated that it was more about putting agreements in place with the sports organizations and clarifying responsibilities, for example, who is responsible for some of the maintenance activities. He explained that this kind of thing does not appear to be documented anywhere and noted that it may be more of a staff conversation with the sports organizations than a Commission conversation. City Administrator Nevinski stated that was a fairly accurate projection and noted that they have had some initial conversations with some of the associations and they also agree that there is not really any background to say who is responsible for those things or who has priority which is why they need to be put into place. He explained that getting this done will be a goal for the new Park and Recreation Director. He suggested that on the Park Tours the Commission take a look at things like what kind of condition the fields are in and if improvements may be needed. Commissioner DiGruttolo asked if the new Park and Recreation Manager will be able to give the Commission input on those types of things, because she, personally, did not know what a ‘good’ baseball field should look like. City Administrator Nevinski stated that he believed that would be something that the new Park and Recreation Manager will be able to help with. Commissioner DiGruttolo asked if the new Park and Recreation Manager would be coming to the Commission meetings. City Administrator Nevinski confirmed that the Park and Recreation Manager would be attending the Park Commission meetings, eventually. He stated that until then, he would still be attending the meetings. Commissioner DiGruttolo asked when the Commission would get to meet the new Park and Recreation Manager. City Administrator Nevinski stated that they will certainly meet him at the Park Tours, but there may be a way to have some one-on-one introductions prior to that. Commissioner Hirner suggested that it may be beneficial for the Commission members to go look at the natural turf athletic fields sometime in the next few weeks. He stated that his thought is that when they get to the conversation about the fields, they will be able to actually have reasonable input on what the turf looked like in the before, during, and after the seasons. He shared that one of his biggest concerns is that some of the organizations want to get on the fields as quickly as possible, but sometimes the fields are still really mushy and he thinks the City needs to be able to say that they have to wait. He stated that he believes it is the City’s call as to when the fields are ready. He explained that he sees this as more of an educational point for the Commission so they understand what it looks like throughout the year. Chair Wenner stated that she suggested that they peg the athletic fields discussion to September. She reviewed the proposed timelines that the Commission had discussed including Southshore Park Planning – August; Natural Area Plans/Athletic Fields – September; and SCEC Fee PARK COMMISSION MINUTES TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2024 PAGE 7 OF 8 Structure/IPM – October. She noted that Commissioner Garske had recommended that they begin discussing some of the ‘other’ category, but she feels that they may need to be separated out. She noted that she felt it would be worthwhile to talk about community outreach and have a discussion about ways the Commission can be more community facing. She asked if the Commission felt that for the time being they should keep November and December open or schedule specific topics. Commissioner DiGruttolo stated that she thinks that they should be kept open. City Administrator Nevinski suggested that the Commission take some of the ‘other’ items and more thoroughly discuss them in the early months of 2025. Chair Wenner asked about the times for the Park Tours. Commissioner Hirner stated that they have begun at 6:00 p.m. in the past. City Administrator Nevinski stated that he thinks staff can be flexible in how they set them up and a start time and suggested that they begin the Park Tour in Manor Park, then Southshore, Silverwood, and finish at Gideon Glen, if time allows. Commissioner Hirner suggested that they also add the boat landing after Silverwood Park. City Administrator Nevinski suggested that they plan Gideon Glen for the June Park Tour. Commissioner Hirner cautioned that they he did not feel that they should plan to too much on the same night they tour Freeman Park because he felt that may take a while because there was a lot of ground to cover. Chair Wenner asked how long the tours usually last. Commissioner Hirner stated that normally they take a few hours, while they have daylight. Chair Wenner suggested that perhaps the Commissioner members could look at Gideon Glen and Badger Park prior to their meeting on July 9, 2024, if they were open to meeting a bit earlier. Commissioner Garske explained that he didn’t think they should plan that for July 9, 2024 because the Commission is supposed to have their recommendations for the CIP by July 15, 2024 and he didn’t think they would have time for both the tours and the CIP discussion. Commissioner Hirner expressed doubt that the Commission would be able to get the remainder of the parks in on June 11, 2024. City Administrator Nevinski noted that the area by Crescent Beach is scheduled for street reconstruction by Tonka Bay, so he felt that could be dropped from the schedule. Chair Wenner stated that she supported that idea and suggested that the Commission take a look at it independently and could also do the same for Gideon Glen. Commissioner Hirner stated that he felt that was a good idea and suggested that they could also take a look at the boat landing independently and then bring the information back to the PARK COMMISSION MINUTES TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2024 PAGE 8 OF 8 Commission. He stated that if they do that then they could move Badger Park to the first night of the Park Tour. Mr. Brown asked if the Park Tours would be open to the public. Commissioner Hirner confirmed that they would be open to the public. He noted that usually a few of the Councilmembers and staff members also join the tour. Chair Wenner reminded the Commission that there are a lot of materials that can be referenced prior to the Park Tours, for example, the master plans. Commissioner Hirner moved to Approve the 2024 Work Plan as amended, to include: Park Tour 1 in May – Manor, Southshore, Silverwood, and Badger at 6:00 p.m.; Park Tour 2 in June – Freeman and Cathcart at 6:00 p.m.; that the Commission tour Gideon Glen and the boat landing independently; Southshore Park Planning discussion – August; Athletic Facilities/Natural Area Plan – September; IPM/SCEC Fee Structure – October, as discussed. Commissioner Garske seconded the motion. Motion carried 4-0. 6. STAFF AND LIAISON REPORTS / UPDATES A. City Council City Administrator Nevinski gave a brief overview of recent Council discussions related to park items. B. Staff City Administrator Nevinski stated that the new Park and Recreation Manager will begin at the City on April 15, 2024. 7. ADJOURN Commissioner Hirner moved to adjourn the Park Commission Meeting of April 9, 2024 at 8:25 p.m. Commissioner DiGruttolo seconded the motion. Motion carried 4-0.