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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2002-04-08 MINUTESCity of Cottage Grove Parks, Recreation & Natural Resources Commission April 8, 2002 Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, a regular meeting of the Parks, Recreation, and Natural Resources Commission was duly held at City Hall, 7516 — 80th Street South, Cottage Grove, Minnesota, on the 8th day of April, 2002. Commission Chair Steve Morse called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Steve Morse, Al Boche, Tammy Schwartz, and new member Kathleen Kullman MEMBERS ABSENT: Eddy Wuorenma, Allan Dubois, Paul Barthol OTHERS PRESENT: Associate Planner John Burbank Ice Arena/Recreation Manager Zachary Dockter Council Member Pat Rice APPROVAL OF AGENDA The agenda was approved as submitted. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Minutes approved as mailed. NEW BUSINESS A. Recreation Staff Uudates Burbank mentioned that Jason West was promoted to Recreation Supervisor on March 20, 2002. Currently the half -time Rec. Programmer Molly Root is working full -time hours to cover the current loss of that full -time Programmer position. He also mentioned that the full -time Programming position has been posted internally and they expect to do interviews this coming week. The hope is to have a full -time Rec. Programmer by the next meeting. Morse wanted to make public congratulations to Jason West on his new position as Recreation Supervisor. B. Kingston Recreation Storage Burbank reviewed the memo from Jason West. He mentioned that there were some conflicts with using the existing storage building and recreation programming staff. So, again this year they are going to go ahead and rent a temporary storage container for the Parks Commission Minutes April 8, 2002 2 Kingston playground program. The funds to pay for that storage facility will be coming out of the General Recreation Fund as usual. Morse asked if there was any vandalism on the storage facility last year and Burbank mentioned the only issue was it was too close to the building and people were jumping on top of it. There was no major disturbance. C. Hamlet Park Picnic Shelter Dockter reviewed that the Hamlet Park picnic shelter was vandalized on Thursday, April 4, 2002. A picnic table was started on fire. An officer tried to subdue it, but had to get more help when the whole shelter was engulfed in flames. The concrete, the shelter and the picnic tables will all have to be replaced. It is up to $20,000 in damages and currently there is a $1,000 reward for any information leading to the conviction of the vandals. Boche asked whom people should call if they have information. Dockter replied that they could contact the Police Department, City Hall or the City Clerk, Tammy Schwartz asked what the policy was on vandalism within the City; what happens when the individual is caught in the act of the crime. Burbank replied that he wasn't sure of the total procedures, but he would work to get an update and provide that information at the next Commission meeting. Dockter asked Commission Members to note any changes they'd like to see to the structure. Whether they'd like to see it moved or changed in any way or not put up at all. All those suggestions will be taken into consideration during the process of rebuilding the shelter. Boche responded that the location maybe should be moved and that it should be reviewed at further Commission meetings. Boche wants to look at the placement of it now before we make a decision on adding another storage building at Hamlet Park. We need to keep all those factors in mind before we just throw the shelter back in the same spot which could have an adverse effect on that future storage building. OLD BUSINESS A. City Council 2002 Goals Burbank reviewed City Council goals and mentioned the Council's goals for the parks. They want to get the facilities on a maintenance program or replacement program which is a positive sign. On a tour last year, they reviewed all the buildings and they are in poor shape. It was positive to see that the City Council shares that same goal with the Commission and staff. Morse mentioned on last year's City Council goals there was a goal that directly coordinated with one of the Commission's goals which was to assist in developing a plan for a community center in the City of Cottage Grove. Morse mentioned that he noticed that was no longer on the 2002 goals and was wondering why that was taken off. He said he doesn't believe that it's not a goal any longer, just that it is not on the list and he wants clarification on that. Burbank asked Rice what the objective of that was and Rice responded that it was assumed the Commission was working on it and it was no longer necessary to have it on Parks Commission Minutes April 8, 2002 the actual goals list. Along with that Burbank wanted to move down to the Community Center update and discuss that. Boche mentioned that there is a meeting coming up with the City Council and the Parks Commission at which point more of those details can be discussed and see where the Council wants to go with the Community Center direction and lay the guidelines out for the upcoming year. Burbank mentioned that before we go any further with the Community Center he wants to make sure that the Council is still willing to go forward with the objective of the Community Center and that they are willing to allot the funds and staff time to do that. He wants to be sure we are all on the same page before we continue on. If that is the case, we will continue to pursue it because there will be some significant funds that will be needed in the research of building a Community Center. Morse said he agrees, he just wanted to make sure that just because it was off the Council's goals doesn't mean we stop our pursuit of it. Moving back up to item A, 2002 Council Goals, Morse just mentioned that he was happy to see that the maintenance of the buildings is a goal of the City Council because it is a major concern of his and the Commission's as well. B. 2002 Commission Goals and Objectives As directed at the last meeting, Burbank broke up the 2002 goals into long -term and short- term goals. He was looking for some input from the Commission as to how things look. Morse said that breaking the goals down into long -term and short-term answered his concerns from last meeting that some of these goals are ongoing and don't necessarily need to be in writing. They are just a part of being on the Commission and some of them are immediate short-term goals that should be achieved hopefully within the year. Morse said he'd like to have the Commission Members once again take them home with them and review them. Hopefully, at the next meeting make a final decision with any questions, comments or additions to the 2002 Commission goals and objectives. C. River Access Park Update Burbank mentioned that there are some meetings scheduled with the DNR and with Washington County and the ball is still rolling. Some grant applications have been sent to the DNR to help with the funding of the project. Things are rolling and we'll continue to update as we move on. Boche commented that things look good and positive and they are moving along. He didn't anticipate the park would be up and running this year anyway. He believes the summer of 2003 is a realistic goal. Schwartz asked about the community's response to the park. Morse mentioned that there have been some articles in the paper and there have been some negative reactions at the Council meetings to building the park. Basically, they don't want the park in their backyard. It is public property, but the residents are waiting for the county master plan to take effect and don't want to see the park put up immediately. The main reasons seemed to be who was going to take care of the park, the maintenance of the facility, the amount of traffic coming through and so on. Parks Commission Minutes April 8, 2002 D. Ball field Renaming 4 Dockter discussed the memo provided. He mentioned that in January the Commission sent the recommendation to Council to rename Woodridge field #47 after Craig Swanson based on the recommendation from the Cottage Grove Athletic Association because of all his volunteer hours. After bringing it to a staff meeting, staff decided that they'd like to review this further and do some research on it before bringing it back to the Commission. The staff is concerned that we are setting a precedent and that if someone else comes in such as a soccer volunteer and they want to name a field after him or her, that the precedent would be to bring it to the Commission. The Commission approves it and then we go on. What staff is looking for are more guidelines, or a policy to go by so we have something to go by next time someone approaches us to rename a field. Dockter was looking for comments or suggestions from the Commission to review this further. Morse mentioned that when they approved it, it was as an unofficial renaming so the actual park would be named Woodridge Fields, but unofficially it would be named Swanson Field. Morse felt that this wouldn't require the policies and guidelines to do just that. All it requires is putting a small sign up and everything would go on as normal. Boche said he could see the concerns especially when it comes to field entrance signs or officially renaming any parks or fields. However, in this instance it is going to be a matter of taking down the #47 and putting up the Swanson Field or even leaving up the #47and putting Swanson Field next to it. It would be nothing more than that, so he doesn't believe it opens us up to potential problems that officially renaming a field would bring about. Dockter asked what would be the future of renaming fields? What if someone from the Soccer Association wants to rename one of the fields at Kingston, do we just accept it as is and keep renaming our fields until all the fields have been renamed or do we have guidelines? What should those guidelines be? You have to volunteer for 15 years or the community needs to vote on it? We need something to go on, some sort of guidelines to refer back to when this situation arises again. Morse responded that he agrees there should be guidelines, but in this particular instance of Woodridge Field it is not necessary and we should move forward with the renaming of this field and set up those guidelines before accepting any new recommendations. Morse believes there should be some criteria to decide who and how names will be renamed, but does not feel we should hold up the current process. Boche mentioned in Dockter's memo there were some good questions raised such as what should the process be to rename the field? Does someone get nominated? Do you have to apply to the City Council or the Parks Commission? Who should be doing the reviewing? In response to that he feels we did a fairly good job of reviewing the request from the CGAA. The request was brought to City staff at which point City staff brought it to the Parks Commission and the Parks Commission recommended it to the City Council. He felt that was a pretty good process and we could build off of that. He would like to see that type of procedure in writing. Boche said that each situation may have to be taken on individually in a one by one situation and that no blanket rule may cover all the grounds. So, there should be some general guidelines of whom you present it to, how you nominate, but then after that each individual request would have to be reviewed by the appropriate parties. Parks Commission Minutes April 8, 2002 5 Dockter also mentioned there was some equity concerns. If one person was recommended and some people don't get along with that person, even though others might, that brings up the equity issue. Morse responded that is a valid point, because sometimes the athletic groups can become very political and those issues may end up being very pertinent. Morse suggested once again that we continue going through the process of renaming this field and then put the brakes on and come up with some policies and /or guidelines for renaming a field before the issue comes to bat again. TRAILWAY PLANNING WORKSHOP This item has been moved to a closed workshop. REPORTS A. Golf Division Burbank mentioned that the Golf Course would be opened on April 12, 2002 for the season. Burbank also mentioned that the dinner specials they have are still popular and we've been getting a lot of good responses to them. B. Ice Arena Division Dockter reviewed his memo which said the studio rink closed on March 20, 2002. The ice show is coming up this weekend, April 13 and 14, 2002, which will be the last weekend of the season for the main rink. We will be closing down for two months. He also thanked the Cottage Grove Hockey Association, which passed an allotment for up to $18,000 towards the replacement of the rubber matting in the downstairs of the Ice Arena. Replacing the matting along with painting the outside of the building and some other maintenance projects this summer and the building should be looking pretty good. C. Parks Division No Comment. D. Recreation Programming Division No Comment. E. Planning Commission No Comment. F. Council Agendas Parks Commission Minutes April 8, 2002 No Comment. G. CGAA 19 Boche said softball and baseball are ready to go and football and soccer registration will be coming up soon. He said we're just waiting for the fields to dry up and then all the teams will be out. COMMISSION COMMENTS Steve Morse asked staff what the reaction of the community was to the closing of the unsupervised rinks last fall. Burbank and Dockter responded that there were no negative reactions that they know of, so we seem to have done the right thing. Morse also reported that he knows the newly opened rink at Arbor Meadows was highly used. STAFF COMMENTS Burbank noted that he would start including the Historic Preservation Commission in the packets for upcoming meetings. He also mentioned that the Lions Club had a meeting about donation of benches to the City. The Commission will choose the placement of these benches in the local parks and open space areas. ADJOURNMENT Schwartz moved to adjourn. Boche seconded it. The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m.