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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-03-13 Packet 04.A. Minutes City of Cottage Grove Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Commission Meeting th February 13, 2023 Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, a Cottage Grove Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Commission Meeting was held on February 13, 2023. I. CALL TO ORDER & READING OF MISSION Meeting called to order at 7:00pm at City Hall II. Roll Call Members Present: Susannah Brown, Shane Waterman, David Olson, Adam Larson, Erik Witt, Samanthia Crabtree Members Absent: Breck Miller Others Present: Zac Dockter Parks & Recreation Director, Council Member Tony Khambata, Molly Pietruszewski Recreation Manager, & Jim Fohrman Parks Supervisor. III. Approval of Agenda A Motion to approve agenda made by Commissioner Crabtree and seconded by Commissioner Witt. Agenda approved. IV. Approval of Minutes th A Motion to approve minutes from December 12 2022, made by Commissioner Olson and seconded by Commissioner Waterman. Minutes approved. V. Open Forum-None - None VI. Presentations- Zac Dockter gave a brief history of Commissioner Erik Witt’s contributions while serving on the Commission Board since March 2016. Commissioner Witt was presented with a plaque of appreciation for time served. VII. Action Items a. Park Trail Naming Request-Olson i. Commissioner Olson started with recusing himself from the discussion and vote. This is the third meeting in consideration of the Olson Family request. Commissioner Witt motioned to approve the request. Commissioner Larson seconded. Motioned passed. Chair Brown wanted to clarify the name “The Olson Memorial Trial” as the naming request and it was confirmed. b. Disc Golf Matching Funds Request i. Zac Dockter presented a letter from the volunteer disc golf group that has been working on improvements of the Oakwood Park Disc Golf Course. They are looking for matching funds specifically for concrete tee pads along with other accomplishments they are hoping to achieve. Looking for a motion to authorize $2,500 for the tee pads and other miscellaneous work. David was the representative for the volunteer group that gave updates on the progress of the improvements to the park. The Commission had many great things to say about the improvements made to the park and expressed their appreciation for everything the volunteer group has done. Commissioner Crabtree inquired about the trash situation. David stated that with the amount of foot traffic the trash will have to be emptied every week. The group has done much work on making sure receptacles as well as signs are strategically placed around the park to encourage visitors to keep the park clean. Commissioner Crabtree motioned to authorize the request. Commissioner Olson seconded. Motion Passed. c. Commission Meeting Agenda i. Zac Dockter presented Commission Meeting Agenda schedule to council prior to the new term beginning in March. Commissioner Crabtree inquired about having a meeting(s) at a local park. Zac stated that in the past they used to meet in September at a park. Chair Brown asked about the logistics of hosting a meeting at a park. Zac will look further into it. Zac will be making a note of th September 11 to be a tentative offsite meeting at a park. Commissioner Crabtree motioned to approve an offsite meeting and agenda. Commissioner Olson seconded. Motion Passed. VIII. Presentation of Information a. Local Option Sales Tax Discussion i. We have submitted an application to the state legislation to be approved for the Local Option Sales tax. Once the application is approved, we can submit a referendum to the residents of Cottage Grove, and they can either approve or deny the Local Option Sales Tax. The three projects that have the most regional significance that this would fund would be: Hamlet Park, Mississippi Dunes Park, and River Oaks Golf Course Event Center. We need to plan for contingency in budgets, looking forward in the future and thus there is a tiered system in the memo to lay out the timeline of project based on greatest regional significance and budgeting. We are also doing a study with the UMN about how the sale tax will impact the community. Commissioner Witt asked if there was any public polling about residents opinions on the tax. Zac stated that we have not done any polling but did a public engagement project to see what improvements residents were looking for. Chair Brown inquired If we did have lost funding in place would that affect our ability to apply for other funding such as grants, Zac assured no. Commissioner Crabtree asked for clarification of the tiered process and what would be the schedule of funding if this referendum does not pass? Specifically, Commissioner Crabtree was concerned about Mississippi Dunes Park completion vs Hamlet which is existing. Zac stated that at this time we do not know what the alternative schedule would be because we are severely underfunded right now. Commissioner Olson commented that we will want this referendum on the 2024 ballot, as that will be a big election year and have a greater voter turnout. Commissioner Olson also asked what can we do as a Commission to help this be successful? Zac advised that we need to make sure that we are educating the public on exactly what they are voting for (or not), boots to the ground with the community. b. Wellness 50+ i. Molly Pietruszewski presented to the Commission that we are now a resource partner with the wellness 50+ group here in town. The goal of this is to share the work for projects and information while promoting for both the group and the city to our 50+ community. Some upcoming training that we will provide them are how to use the workout equipment at Kingston Park & how to play bocce ball and disc golf. IX. Action Updates a. Glacial Valley Park Building Project st i. No major updates. May 1 is the anticipated project start date and hoping to have the building open in October. b. River Oaks Irrigation Project i. Finalizing contract and products have been ordered. We posted for 3 positions for the Golf Course as well. Commissioner Olson asked if there is a plan for any marketing regarding the course being 17 holes this season vs 18. Zac stated that we will be managing the closures day by day and we will not be changing the rates, but instead we will be providing vouchers to golfers. c. 2023 Park Projects i. Hamlet Park-Closing off the basketball & tennis courts & re- surfacing the courts. Pine Tree Valley Park-replacing rink lighting and updating to LED. Bike Park-add a park shelter and update landscaping. WAG Dog Park-Drainage & trail maintenance. Playground equipment updates at Peter Thompson, Ideal, Pine Tree Pond, & Highlands Park. Still Ponds Park-developing natural trails. Glacial Valley is approximately 80% completed. X. Donation & Acknowledgements a. None XI. Staff Reports & Educational Material a. Zac submitted Staff Reports for all divisions. Zac also provided the Mississippi National River & Recreation Area Water Trail Plan to the th Commission. Would like any comments prior to the April 15 meeting he will be attending. b. Facility Rentals have been very busy as rental applications just opened this month. There has been no feedback (positive or negative) regarding the change of the rental schedule. In the future we may adjust the rental start time to be early then 10am. XII. Commission Comments a. Commissioner Witt expressed his gratitude for his 7 years served on the board. b. Chair Brown had asked for more information on the ice rink struggles this year. Jim Fohrman presented an explanation on the difficulties the parks crew has had in getting the rinks flooded and maintained. Due to warm weather, heavy snow accumulations, a cold snap, and short staff it has been a very difficult struggle to be able to get the rinks up and running and in good usable condition. Warming house hours however have been consistent despite rinks not being flooded. XIII. Council Comments a. Councilman Khambata commended Commissioner Witt on his time and efforts served. XIV. Adjournment a. Motion to adjourn to workshop made by Commissioner Crabtree. Seconded by Commissioner Larson. Meeting Adjourned. XV. Workshop a. Commissioner on-boarding