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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes i� ��tJV� �ri°t � y � ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ���� �ri e ar�d PC�� t MINUTES COTTAGE GROVE CITY COUNCIL February 1 , 2017 COUNCIL CHAMBER 12800 RAVINE PARKWAY SOUTH SPECIAL MEETING - 6:00 P.M. TRAINING ROOM 1. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Bailey called the Special Meeting to order on February 1, 2017, at 6:00 p.m. This was a joint meeting with the Parks, Recreation, and Natural Resources Commission. 2. ROLL CALL Mayor Bailey asked those present to introduce themselves: Present were Council Member Thiede, Council Member Johnson, Council Member Dennis, Council Member La Rae Mills. Also, the following members of the Parks Commission: Dan Bonneson, Ron Kath, Mike Zurbey, Samanthia Crabtree, Jack Reimann, Eric Witt, and Mark Nelson, Chair. Staff present included: Zac Dockter, Parks and Recreation Director; John Burbank, Senior Planner; Jennifer Levitt, Community Development Director/City Engineer; Robin Roland, Finance Director; Charlene Stevens, City Administrator; Sharon Madsen, Communications Coordinator; Molly Pietruszewski, Parks and Recreation. 3. AGENDA ITEM A. Workshop — Open to the Public: Park Improvement Fund Staff Recommendation: Meet with Parks, Recreation, and Natural Resources Commission to provide staff direction on project prioritization for the Park Improvement Capital lmprovement Fund. Director pockter stated tonight the goal was to prioritize some of the park improvement projects that have been scheduled in the CIP for quite a while. The Park Improvement Plan, begun in 2013, gave some dedicated funding toward the park improvement projects. Director pockter reviewed the 2017-2022 projects, as follows: -2017: Arbor Meadows playground construction. -Hamlet Park: Skate Park improvements done over the next four years. There was $50,000 scheduled in 2016; due to vandalism and some security concerns, the Parks Commission decided to spread that funding out over five years, with $10,000 used to add security cameras and CITY OF COTTAGE GROVE • 12800 Ravine Parkway • Cottage Grove, Minnesota 55016 www.cottage-grove.org • 651-458-2800 • Fax 651-458-2897 • Equal Opportunity Employer City Council Meeting Minutes February 1, 2017 Page 2 signage. The plan is to slowly implement some skate park improvements, as trends change quickly in skate parks, so this will give an opportunity to refresh it every year. -Grey Cloud School: The South Washington County Athletic Facility Needs Study showed softball field improvements were needed, and a large shade structure for tournaments and large events was also added. -Inclusive Playground: $350,000 was originally going to come out of the Park Trust; they're currently adding that to the Park Improvement Plan to make sure there's a dedicated source to get the project done. -2018: The matching grants program. Pine Glen playground replacement, based on its condition. -A Fitness Trail will be added to one park; along the trail you can stop at different fitness components, geared toward adults, although children can also use them. -2019: Matching grants program. Hamlet Skate Park Improvements, and also replacement of the Old Cottage Grove ice skating rink boards. -The Hamlet Park Project is really the driver of all of the Capital Improvements Plan (CIP) for the Park Improvement Fund. All planning today based on direction from staff, the Commission, and the Council, in past years, is that Hamlet Park is the priority. With that in mind, we've been trying to complete a lot of projects but really focusing on building the cash balance to get the Hamlet Park expansion project completed. It would be a phased project, over four-to-five years, and there have been some items removed from the project including lights, shelters, a parking lot, etc. -2019: Utilities, grading, and seeding of Hamlet Park the first year. -2020: Pinetree Valley Park playground replacement; Construction of two ball fields at Hamlet Park. -2021: Hamlet Park parking lots and streets, $500,000, which would give new access from 95th Street. Highlands Park: Basketball court replacement. Playground replacements: Lamar Park and Hearthside Park, $50,000 each (or$100,000). -2022: Hamlet Park: Complete by installing trails, landscaping, shelters, and finishing the final two ball fields. Highlands Park: Playground replacement. Meadow Grass Park: Playground replacement. Hidden Valley Park: Playground replacement. Kingston Park: Replacement of tennis courts and basketball courts. Director pockter stated there will be a deficit in 2022; we're fine through 2021, but have a problem after 2021 to get everything completed. Unfunded and planned projects include: Woodridge Park building with automatic doors, in coordination with the Inclusive Playground, $5,000; Arbor Meadows irrigation and shelter could be worked in with pavement management, which is three-to-five years out; Oltman Middle School athletic fields, as the City has the opportunity to develop those; an indoor play center, which is redeveloping the pool building; Ice Arena, in need of a refrigeration system; Oakwood Park amphitheater, restrooms, shelters, trails, etc.; Pine Glen Park shelter and shade structure; Skate Park pavement replaced with concrete; Pinetree Valley rink lighting; Kingston Park building upgrade, $300,000, for concessions and rentals; Hamlet Park concession building, $300,000, is not part of the Hamlet Park improvement plan, so would be added to the project; outdoor artificial turf installation at either Kingston Park or Hamlet Park, $1,000,000, but partnerships could be sought for capital costs; acquiring additional land at Lamar Park to try to make a sports complex. City Council Meeting Minutes February 1, 2017 Page 3 Director pockter then opened the meeting for questions, and many were asked including if there were any improvements or repairs expected for the Splash Pad, as no expenses were indicated for that, and if the expenses and revenues projected were reflected in the CIP. The Splash Pad was built in 2012, and he'd expect at least 15 years out of it, so he hoped it would stay intact until at least 2027. He stated the expense and revenue projections were reflected in the CIP. Director pockter stated that the Verizon lease revenue is estimated at $360,000 per year, and they've been exceeding that. The caution is that they can't guarantee how long that revenue stream will be available. Director pockter was asked why that would be and advised technology changes might cause that with satellites being used versus wireless towers, etc. Director pockter stated they needed to talk about prioritization. The key component is Hamlet Park, which will take a lot of money, and he wanted to know if it was a priority to make that happen before anything else on the list was done. Much discussion ensued about utilization of Hamlet Park; current locations of ball fields, including school fields, and the Joint Powers Agreement with the City maintaining the schools' ball fields; the majority of what's being proposed is for athletic uses of the field and the ability to host tournaments; if Cottage Grove was missing out on tournaments because we don't have the proper facilities; with the new Oltman Middle School now in play, if that reduced at all the need for Hamlet Park; proposed fields at Hamlet Park being baseball-size fields; and if we still need a park at Oltman Middle School, as it wasn't originally in Cottage Grove's plans. Director pockter stated they're building for the future and long-term use. Community Center: Mayor Bailey felt that would have to be on a referendum by itself. Council Member Dennis concurred. A potential site for a community center would the old City Hall site, because Washington County is already planning a library, and there's some interest from a developer. Parcels of property could possibly be put together right in that area with a connected facility, somewhat like Woodbury. If that happens, do we need to have an indoor playground? It was commented if you're going to have a community center, it should be located in a big complex; we should think ahead about where a community center might fit in, so parking, etc. could be calculated now. Current Parks: There are many parks in Cottage Grove, 36 or 37, and based upon the number of people and the parks we have, we're way above other cities. Do we need to have a park in every single development? In lieu of putting in a park, we might use some of that money as funding to cover some of the other park improvements. Another challenge is if we add yet another park, we have to maintain it so those are hidden costs that also need to be addressed. We have to make sure that we really need more ball fields; if you add them all up, the cost is about $1,600,000. Administrator Stevens stated the key was that Hamlet Park is still the driver of the plan because the unfunded plan projects remain unfunded. Council Member Thiede felt if City Council Meeting Minutes February 1, 2017 Page 4 something would have to be cut, you'd probably have to look at Hamlet Park; if you didn't do some things to Hamlet Park, you could do four other things. Director pockter stated that's the direction he was trying to go tonight, but if we go ahead with Hamlet Park, we're limited with the other projects. Administrator Stevens stated that would be like the Oltman Middle School ball fields, none of which are funded. Mayor Bailey stated that Hamlet Park was more of a priority to him than the Oltman Middle School fields. It was asked how much regular use the Hamlet Skate Park got, as if we're going to be investing money year after year to upgrade the Skate Park, is that something we should continue to put money into or will interest in it slowly fade away. Director pockter stated the Skate Park probably gets used as often as any of the neighborhood parks; it's used every day, in most of the seasons. He stated the original investment was about $50,000, and they're looking at about another$50,000, very similar to a playground, phased over five years. Council Member Johnson stated we're okay until 2022, as long as the funding keeps coming in the way it is, so it really wouldn't affect any other CIP right now; he asked even if we shut out Hamlet Park, you're not going to take those funds to apply towards anything else because those funds are dedicated to park improvements. Director Dockter confirmed that, so the question is if there was anything on the bottom that needed to be moved to the top; and if anything moved to the top, what should be moved to the bottom? Director pockter was asked if the ball fields at Hamlet Park will only be used for tournaments; he replied those would also be for local use, practices, games, etc. It was commented if there were tournaments, it would be useful to have a concession building and felt that should be looked into. Perhaps that should be moved up, because it didn't make sense to have all the fields without a concession stand. Director pockter stated there would be a shelter scheduled in the middle where tables could be brought in, so that's an option. Administrator Stevens stated if you add another thing to Hamlet Park, then you have to take something away from another park. If the City ran the concession, they could recover some of the costs of the structure; Director pockter stated they'd tried that at various sites, but it doesn't work very well. Director pockter stated there's some economic benefit to having big parks, as a tournament with 16 teams, including parents, siblings, grandparents, and other relatives and/or friends, who are coming to Cottage Grove might also stay at local hotels, eat at our restaurants, etc. Over the years, it had been heard that Cottage Grove didn't have the fields to run some of the big tournaments, so perhaps the focus on Hamlet Park was the right approach. Mayor Bailey stated he would continue with the plan the way it's laid out, with Hamlet Park being an option, and there aren't any serious concerns until we're past 2020. Mayor Bailey felt we should keep on the current path, maybe look at parks going forward, if we need as many as we had originally thought. We should look at those conversations as a governing body, but if there's going to be referendum, we do a City Council Meeting Minutes February 1, 2017 Page 5 referendum for one item, not four. He felt we learned a lot from the last referendum. Council Member Dennis concurred. Mayor Bailey stated he loved the amphitheater idea; we now have an Arts Commission and new life coming into art, other than just the sports facility thought processes. As we're looking to the future, with Oakwood Park there's proposed development with the land, versus putting in yet another park; he felt any revenue coming from them would allow us to put money aside for the Oakwood Park redevelopment to help subsidize the expenses. Director pockter stated he heard that Hamlet Park was still the priority so they'd continue to aggressively pursue that project. If that's the decision, the unfunded projects obviously don't move up. He asked if there was anything that needed to be considered or if it looked pretty good the way that it was. Council Member Dennis asked Director pockter to reach out to someone who is an expert on the technology in cell phones and find out when the technologies might change; he knew there were people out there who had their finger on that pulse, and they need to know whether the current Verizon funding source might dry up. Council Member Johnson stated the old pool building isn't being effectively utilized and it's mostly storage; we needed to at least keep that on the radar to we can utilize it for something more effective. Council Member Thiede asked if we'd ever talked to St. Paul Park to see if they'd like to work with us on that facility, as it's right on their border, and when there was a pool, a lot of the users were from St. Paul Park. Director pockter stated when it was a pool, St. Paul Park had no interest in working with us; he didn't know if they'd have interest in the empty building. Council Member Thiede stated no matter what's done with it, it would take money. Director pockter felt they should do something with it, perhaps just unload it; Council Member Thiede agreed. Council Member Dennis thanked everyone who attended the Special Meeting. 4. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 6:54 p.m. Minutes prepared by Judy Graf and reviewed by Joe Fischbach, HR Manager/City Clerk.