Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks and Recreation - 09/14/2009 APPROVED MINUTES PARKS, RECREATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION JOINT MEETING WITH EDEN PRAIRIE ARTS & CULTURE COMMISSION MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2009 7:00 P.M. ART CENTER 7650 Equitable Drive PRNR COMMISSION MEMBERS: Geri Napuck, Chair; Jeffrey Gerst, Vice Chair; Tom Bierman, Hutch Coburn, Lee Elliott-Stoering, Derek Gunderson, Joan Oko PRNR STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES: Spencer Lasley, Richard Ericson, Pranay Rao ARTS COMMISSION MEMBERS: Ann Rorem, Chair; Farida Kathawalla, Vice Chair; Ana Armstrong, Steve Mosow, Heather Olson, Elizabeth Petry-Lee, Julia Ramos ARTS STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES: Eric Wiig, Renee Roden CITY STAFF: Jay Lotthammer, Parks & Recreation Director Laurie Obiazor, Recreation Manager Stu Fox, Parks and Natural Resources Manager Wendy Sevenich, Community Center Manager Beth Witt, Aquatic & Fitness Coordinator Lindsey Danhauser, Recreation Coordinator- Arts RECORDING SECRETARY: Katie Hood I. ROLL CALL Napuck called the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m. Jeffrey Gerst, Hutch Coburn, Farida Kathawalla were absent. Mosow arrived at 7:06 p.m. Ramos arrived at 7:07 p.m. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Olson moved to approve, the Agenda, seconded by Armstrong. Motion carried 11-0. III. APPROVAL OF PRNR MINUTES —AUGUST 3, 2009 MOTION: Elliot-Stoering moved to approve the August 3, 2009 PRNR Minutes, seconded by Bierman. Motion carried 5-0. PARKS, RECREATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION ARTS & CULTURE COMMISSION MINUTES September 14, 2009 Page 2 IV. APPROVAL OF ARTS MINUTES - JULY 20, 2009 • Section IV. A.: change "miss the donation collection" to "arrive late and miss the donation collection". • Section IV. C.: add "September 24, 25, and 26". • Section V. B.: add "Parks and Recreaction" to brochure. Add "for more dedicated students" after art academy. Change "their" to "presenting their". • Section VII. A.: change "have an activity of a" to "include a". • Section VIL B.: change "when compared" to "by comparing". Add "which overlap with a religious holiday. It is the holiest holiday of the Jewish holidays." Change "the" to "religious holidays"in the last sentence. MOTION: Mosow moved to approve the July 20, 2009 minutes, as corrected, seconded by Olson. Motion carried 6-0. V. REPORT OF CITY COUNCIL ACTION OF AUGUST 18, SEPTEMBER 1, 2009 Lotthammer reported on the Amsden Way sidewalk reconstruction, fencing projects, the winter use of the LRT trail for Stuart Fox, and trail repair. Lotthammer said the City Council approved the replacement of a portion of the Amsden Way Sidewalk. The repair work will begin in mid-September with completion by early October. Lotthammer said the City Council approved the improvements and/or completion of fencing at Miller Park, Round Lake, and Nesbitt Preserve. The money for the fence work at Nesbitt Preserve Park will be funded from the Park Improvement Fund and a donation from the Eden Prairie Baseball Association. The new fencing will be cost shared 50150. Lotthammer said the LRT trail would be marked as closed, during the winter, unless the City receives a permit. The Three Rivers Park District does not provide use of maintenance of the LRT trail between November 15 and March 31 of each year. For the past few years, the City has received a permit to allow hiking/walking and cross-country skiing. If a permit was not applied for and received, the trail would be signed as closed and unavailable to the public, during the winter. Lotthammer said the eight foot trails along portions of Duck Lake Trail, Valley View Road and Edenvale Blvd will be repaved. Lotthammer said that where sections of trail are less than eight feet concrete is used. The sidewalk replacement work will begin in mid-September with completion by early October. The City staff will be restoring the private property lawn areas. VI. REPORT OF PLANNING COMMISSION OF AUGUST 10,AUGUST 24, 2009 Lotthammer said Bearpath is considering replacing the arborvitae bushes with a fence and Best Buy was granted approval for 2 wind generators. Best Buy has already installed the wind generators on their store in Eden Prairie. Lotthammer said the arborvitae isn't a full barrier for the neighborhood and they need to be replaced from time to time. The City PARKS, RECREATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION ARTS & CULTURE COMMISSION MINUTES September 14, 2009 Page 3 has looked into using alternative energy in City buildings similar to what is being used at Best Buy. The waste heat is being used for heating the pool in the Community Center. Wind and Solar are two options,but the cost savings can be 20 to 30 years in the future. The City is working on replacing the heating in the skating warming houses and replacing the lights in the parking lots with LED lights. Stimulus money is being used for these upgrades. VII. PETITIONS, REQUESTS AND COMMUNICATION None. VIII. OLD BUSINESS None. IX. NEW BUSINESS A. Art Center Tour/Proizram Review Danhauser gave the group a tour of the Art Center. There have been 37 classes and 302 students in the Art Center. There are 20 household members and 15 individual members of the Art Center. The 2009 revenue, to date, is $38,272. $36,000 was budgeted for the 2009 revenue. One of the reasons the revenue is greater than anticipated this year, is there have been more class offerings than were originally planned. There has been $13,464.80 donated for equipment and supplies to date. An additional $50,000 has been raised by the Friends of the Eden Prairie Art Center to be used for building improvements and additional equipment. Obiazor said the communication department is working on gift certificates and hopes to have them available during 2010. B. Beach Use Summary Witt said the City of Eden Prairie had no life threatening emergencies at the City beaches during 2009. Lake Riley was the only operating beach this summer. The number of people using the beach had decreased this year, but this was probably due to the cooler summer. Round Lake was closed, during 2009, due to low water levels and the water conditions. The plan was to have Round Lake open later in the summer, if conditions improved, but it did not end up opening. The Round Lake water levels were low due to little rain this year. There was also an abundance of lake weeks. These conditions then resulted in high E-Coli counts. Lotthammer said a lot of contaminates are picked up when the water travels across the lawns, sidewalks and driveways. These contaminates can affect the pH of the water and can cause the blue/green algae. Lotthammer said a barrier on the lawns could help because the soil and grass can act as a strainer before the water enters the pond. This is what the rain water garden does at the Art Center. It helps strain the water before entering the sewer system. Lotthammer PARKS, RECREATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION ARTS & CULTURE COMMISSION MINUTES September 14, 2009 Page 4 said a rain water garden may be a more popular barricade than a line of grass in individuals lawns. C. Flying Cloud Field/MAC Lease Lotthammer said the City of Eden Prairie and the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) are in the process of updating the lease agreement. The property includes the community gardens by Pioneer Trail and the soccer fields. The City pays $600 per year for all of the property. The new lease includes an expansion of 25 acres to the west of the athletic fields. The price of the lease could be an issue. The lease has been a year-to- year renewable lease, but the lease proposal is moving to a three year lease. In a previous agreement, it states the lease price cannot change by more than an order of magnitude. There will probably be discussions about what this means. Lotthammer will let the Parks, Recreation, and Natural Recourses Commission know about the information before any information is published in the newspaper. D. 2010/2011 Bud_e�posal Lotthammer said the City Council approved the maximum amount of the levy. The budget that was submitted is fairly flat, except for Park Maintence. The facility care and maintenance is now under the individual departments and not the facilities department. Each department now gets charged for their portion of office space. The fire pension fund has an $800,000 increase to the City budget and the Budget Advisory Commission will be making recommendations on how it should be funded. There will be no increase for staffing. E. Fundraising (PowerPoint) Lotthammer said the donations were: 2007 $898,735 (cash donations) $30,006 (in-kind donations) 2008 $570, 341 (cash donations) $1,050,152 (in-kind donations) The gifts and donations consist of cash, services, gift certificates and other items that benefit the parks and programs. People are recognized for their donations. Sometimes they are in the newspapers, program brochures and/or in annual reports. The donations are always recognized at a City Council meeting. With the Community Center naming rights, the donators receive recognition for 20 years. Cooperate sponsors can be a big help with finances in building and sports fields. The baseball stadium received additional funding by having sponsors and the scoreboards were partially paid for by sponsors. Lotthammer said the Friends of the Eden Prairie Art Center have been successful in fundraising for the Arts Center. They have held many fundraising events. The barrier free play structure was financed from donations and additional fundraising was led by Mike Garvin and the Ashley and Friends website. The telescope is another example of PARKS, RECREATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION ARTS & CULTURE COMMISSION MINUTES September 14, 2009 Page 5 outside financing helping to bring the project to completion. Two donations of $125,000 and $10,000 are funding this project. Lotthammer said Eden Prairie's fundraising is higher than most other communities. Many cities have only one of these projects going on. The City of Eden Prairie also has a great track record of having donated money going to a great use within a short amount of time. X. REPORTS OF STAFF A. Community Center Manama None. B. Recreation Services Manager None. C. Art Center Coordinator FYI: Collection of One Acts FYI: Art Crawl Rorem said the Art Crawl will be in the Eden Prairie News on Thursday. Rorem said the Art Crawl will help to get exposure for Eden Prairie Artists and to improve the networking of the artists. The Art Crawl will be September 26 and 27. Ramos said she was at the International Festival and was questioned by a Human Rights and Diversity Commission (HRDC) member about why the dates of the Art Crawl were an issue. The HRDC member was very upset about the outcome of the dates selected, for the Art Crawl, and how the HRDC was notified. The Art Crawl second day was an issue because it conflicts with the Jewish high holiday of Yom Kippur. The HRDC was not notified that it was an urgent matter and that the event was going to be held in September. Ramos said the statement sent to the HRDC was general and not date specific. The holiday starts at sundown and ends at sundown the next day. The previous minutes will be looked at to see what was sent to the HRDC. Rorem said she is sorry the dates are causing such a problem. FYI: Artist Network Danhauser said the Artists Network is holding an event on September 15 from 6:00 — 8:00 pm at the Senior Center. The event will include playful portraits and a discussion. PARKS, RECREATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION ARTS & CULTURE COMMISSION MINUTES September 14, 2009 Page 6 D. Parks and Natural Resources Manager 1. Dog Park Improvements Update Lotthammer said there will be a new pet comfort station at the dog park. There are bowls the dogs can drink out of at the bottom of the water fountain. There is also a wash off spray station. Concrete is being added to the two entrances. The wood chips keep washing away in the entrance, so something more permanent was needed. Oko commented that when people turn off Pioneer Trail, the road where cars turn left into the parking lot isn't wide enough for two cars. It isn't necessarily an issue for the dog park,but could be an issue with the baseball fields. Oko asked if the parking lot will be paved in one or two sessions? Lotthammer said the parking lot will be done all at once. There will be one layer put down and five to six months later there will be another layer put down. There may be one to two days the lot is closed. Lotthammer said he would have the entrance to the parking lot checked. FYI: Council Award Bid for Amsden Way Sidewalk Project FYI: Council Award Bid for Various Fencing Projects FYI: Council—Winter Trail Use Permit FYI: Council—Trail Recommendation E. Parks and Recreation Director 1. 2009 PRNR Work Plan Lotthammer said he will look at the agenda for the discussion items to determine if the date needs to be changed, or if the next meeting can be in November. XI. NEXT MEETING Next PRNR Meeting—Monday, October 5, City Center, 7 p.m. —Council Chambers Next Arts Meeting—Monday, October 12, City Center, 7 p.m. —Prairie Room XII. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Oko moved, seconded by Bierman to adjourn the meeting. Napuck adjourned the meeting at 8:57 p.m.