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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity and School Facility Use Advisory Committee - 01/20/1999 UNAPPROVED MINUTES CITY AND SCHOOL FACILITY USE ADVISORY COMMITTEE JANUARY 20, 1999 7 : 00 P.M. CITY CENTER Atrium Conference Room 8080 Mitchell Road COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: David Steppat, Carol Bomben, Nancy Tyra-Lukens . COMMITTEE MEMBER ABSENT: Al Gaines, Niel Crocker, Donald Jacobson. COMMITTEE STAFF PRESENT: Jeanne Zetah, Director of Community Education Services, Steve Schultz, High School Activities Director, Bob Lambert, Director of Parks and Recreation, Lyndell Frey, Community Center Manager. COMMITTEE STAFF ABSENT: Laurie Helling I . CALL TO ORDER Meeting called to order at 7 : 05 II . APPROVAL OF AGENDA (Not a Formal Meeting) III . APPROVAL OF MINUTES (Not a Formal Meeting) A. Approval of Minutes of May 20, 1998 IV. OLD BUSINESS A. Update on Community Center Pool Projects -Mr. Frey Mr. Frey explained there is sand in the pool now, it was going to be replaced with lava rock, We had a sand filter and we replaced that with two sand filters, they are horizontal 36 diameter filters . It gives us more room and we are able to put on ozone protection, if we want to do that in the future . This was the reason for the change in size and configuration of it . The pool expert said we really ought to consider going with this new media, made out of a lava rock, crushed rock. You don' t have to backwash as often, and it is supposed to take care of the combined chlorine problem with chlorines . We had cloudy water, our H-Vac system is working, we were having no problem with people coughing and such, but it kept getting cloudier and cloudier. It was not to the point where it was dangerous . It was to the point where we had to shut it down, because kids couldn' t turn their corners when swimming. It was not a bacteria issue. When we changed over, there is a bit of odor of chlorine in the air again. Mr. Frey talked to the owner of Neptune Benson, the company that put this in, the previous day, and they said they have over 200 installations across the country. This was the third pool that they have had a problem with. All three of those pools had 36 inch diameter horizontal filters . It was stated European countries have used this product for 20 years, and in England which is probably the most strict country as far as health codes, they require a minimum of one meter depth in the bed, and they are convinced that is the problem. They have a new product coming out now that is a finer granule, instead of a 3 ml granule, it is a 1 .2 ml ring. A pool at MIT has used this finer granule, and they are not having a problem since they converted. However, they don' t have the amount of use we have in our pool . Neptune Benson is willing at their cost to take the sand out again, put this new finer granular material back in our pool and try it . Mr. Frey stated he was willing to do that, too . The second part of that project was the H-Vac system. We have yet to have the balancer out, to have that balanced. The balance will give us a report on if that system is working completely operational like it is supposed to be. We have had a number of problems with that right up until last week, the unit sitting on the roof was frozen like a popcicle . No complaints of smells, or coughing. Mr. Frey stated coughing was heard after they changed to a sand filter on a Saturday/Sunday, and on Monday morning in boys' practice Mr. Frey heard a couple of boys coughing and the high school coach has asked what the difference was, and it was explained we went back to a sand filter. It was stated 990 of the pools in the metro area are sand filters, and they are not having problems . We were told that 95 0 of our problem in that pool is going to be air exchange . B. Update on District Facilities Mr. Shultz indicated a need for foresight to anticipate things that are going to come up a year from now as a precedent for next year. We hired someone in the district in August, to be the manager of the facility. In August the facility was supposed to be done, or at least the field was supposed to be done . The field did not get completed until November. We were not able to use it as a fall facility for us at all this year. We didn' t have anything in place . John (manager of facility) became tired of having nothing to do and this really wasn' t the kind of thing that he was looking for as a job, so he left us after a month. We are starting to get busy. Dick was gracious enough to accept a teacher on special assignment position for the rest of this school year. Number one, we want to increase opportunities for the kids at the school . We are a large school, we need to have other things for kids to do. Our athletic programs are really fine, we have outstanding facilities already. Mr. Shultz stated we have a lot of kids who don' t make our athletic teams but still want to be involved in sports . In order to do that, we have to increase the facilities available, because they are all tied up with other things . So the two projects, the dome portion, and the activity center, are really going to give us a double dose of opportunity available . We are going to have everything that we can do inside in the activity center, we are going to have everything you can do on the outside capacity in the Prairie Dome. We can do it in July as well as January. We are really going to have a great situation when we get done here . Construction was a challenge for us this year. Mr. Schultz stated he realized we are in very unchartered waters for school districts . There are six of these type facilities around. We are the only public school that has one in Minnesota. When we add the big gym facility, there is one in Hopkins, there is another one in Coon Rapids, it is similar, but nobody has a big gym like that in addition to what we have and certainly nobody has the two facilities . In addition to this is the performing arts piece. It is hoped to have the policies, procedures, and processes all worked out ahead of time and be able to say this is the way we are going. Mr. Shultz stated having to make snap decisions because of time lines that other people had, that people needed our answer and they couldn' t wait for us to develop a policy to develop a procedure, and even get Board approval on lot of these . They have been trying to operate and learn from the mistakes we have made so when we bring proposals for policies and procedures, they have been experienced and tested. We have talked to other kinds of facilities that are similar to learn. We have talked to the people who are using our facility who have used other ones . We talked to the soccer group, for example, and asked what was not good at Holy Angels that we should do better, what would be more beneficial . As we tried to find where our place in Eden Prairie, probably the closest similar situation is the Community Center. Bob has said for many years it was built with the understanding that it helped generate revenue to pay its operating cost . There would be a user fee generation situation. We think that is the same situation here, but even that is not totally applicable and totally equal because they don' t have the classroom component along with the fact that it is a public school and we have classes in there, so obviously we need to fund that portion. We are not expecting it to generate all the income that it takes to operate it . The other thing that we found where as the Community Center is probably dual purpose, primarily ice things and pool things, weight rooms, and meeting rooms . We have dance team practices out there, for example . Mr. Schultz questioned who are the people that are going to be using it and where do we go from there and how do we talk with them. The first group of users we have on a daily basis are the physical education classes that are out there . We have been operating for about two weeks, so it isn' t like we have a long history of this, but it has basically been since Christmas vacation that we have had it up and running and had the temperature up where we can stand it . Basically physical education classes are out there during the daytime . In the afternoon from 3 p.m. , when we are out of school until about 6 p.m. , we have our own programs . It was stated we have 10 touch football teams, seven soccer teams, 22 basketball teams, six ultimate frisbee teams, four girls lacrosse teams . Two boys' lacrosse teams, and seven kids that want to do (boche) ball . We have a program on a four-week time line, so the first four-week time period we have football and soccer happening. As soon as that four weeks is over, then we will switch to ultimate frisbee and lacrosse, and then we will do something else . We want to get something up and off the ground this year, it has been a challenge because the facility hasn' t been operable . In addition to that, we have a lot of groups that haven' t had places to practice because of either construction or just overflow in the gym, so as I mentioned our dance team has been practicing out there a lot . Evenings has been rental to various community groups . Some of our groups will practice on Saturday mornings and then we have a number of leagues in the afternoons . Community groups and baseball associations and soccer associations will use the facility on Sundays . Rental options were discussed. This is controversial as to who gets it and who doesn' t get to rent. On what basis do you decide and all those kind of things? This facility will be partially supported by its users . The second thing decided was that the rental rates would be similar to what they are at comparable facilities so that we are not going to be double what anybody else is, we are also not going to be half of what anybody else is . The third thing was that we would develop a priority order so when we have to choose, if two groups want to have the same time, how we are going to choose how to do that regarding the City' s priorities . Rates were discussed for different kinds of groups . It was discussed at the open house programming into the weekly schedule some open time for individual users who want to come in and run, because of cold weather. Staff expressed a wish for walking time before school, from 6 a.m. Mr. Schultz suggested a pass-type system for people who want to come in and play soccer with whoever shows up. It was discussed designating some soccer times or some touch football times . We will announce all those on a weekly basis on our hot line . Mr. Schultz discussed what are comparable dome situations, concerning rates . Holy Angels charges $310 per hour, and these are for the full facility. They break it down into half facilities if someone wanted that . Augsburg charges $260 an hour. Mr. Schultz stated Eden Prairie is at $280 . We have softer turf because of the upgrades . We try to provide more for rentals in terms of equipment. This is especially true in baseball and softball . We provide pitching mounds . We provide back stops, batting cages . The projected cost is estimated at about $10, 000 to $12, 000 per month operating costs . Mr. Shultz stated the first priority is school district . Second, community education programs . Third City of Eden Prairie programs . Fourth, community group one, which is 75 percent or more Eden Prairie kids . Fifth, community group two, less than 75 percent, but which their headquarters are in Eden Prairie . Sixth, community group three, which are individuals, companies or vendors who use the facilities to do fund raising. City programs priorities : 1) City programs . 2) District programs . 3) Youth teams, members of nonprofit organizes that have 90 percent Eden Prairie residents . 4) Nonprofit groups that use the facilities and raise money for the benefit of the entire community. 5) Business, neighborhood groups located in Eden Prairie during the primary/secondary season. 6) Nonprofit that has 75 percent residents during their primary season. 7) Nonprofit adult teams . 8) Schools or churches, primary season. 9) Priority two teams during a secondary. 10) Priority three teams during a secondary season. 11) Eden Prairie teams on first come first serve basis that has 50 percent membership. Start with the local people you want to satisfy first and then the farther removed from that, you get lower priority. A problem was responding to requests that came before we could get people in line . Mr. Schultz suggested 75 percent of Eden Prairie residents that rent the facilities offer them one weekend with no rental charge on which they could host some kind of a tournament to help them generate income . Ms . Zetah suggested people who use the gym to turn in their request by a certain date, at which point it will be evenly divided up so that all people that want it get a fair shake and they have to justify based on a projected growth if they are asking for more time . We will only book out for one year at time . C. Maximize Citizen Satisfaction Ms . Zetah talked about the third role for the group, which is maximizing citizen satisfaction. It was discussed feedback of the group that used facilities . The City has done a community survey in October for which the results are now back. There is a process, whether it is a free use, they would get a form once a year, with their bill . There is a chance for them to give us feedback. Regarding our community pool, in October 1998, we continued with the question: Are the school facilities well-maintained inside and out? It was found that the rating from people went from 87 . 4 percent, back in 1996, to an improvement up to 96. 5 percent, in October 1998 . There is an increase in the terms of rating the facility. A question was added in 1998 : Are pool facilities well-used before and after the normal school day? People answered 91 . 6 percent rated that positively. We now have a bench mark question to go back to later. Parents rated it higher than nonparents, possibly because more of them get in there than don' t . We have six years worth of data. Five of the key questions we asked were : 1) How would you rate the fees and are they reasonable? 2) Is there good supervision provided? 3) Was there prompt service for what they needed. 4) Was there good communication about policy rates and procedures? 5) Fees are we rated lower? The last comprehensive City survey that was done in 1995 . There were 209 questions, of those there were about 20 that related to the Park and Recreation Department . Everything from streets, to police, was included in that. A comprehensive member surveyor and nonmember survey at the Community Center. This report was done by college students . It was discovered that 93 percent of our members all live within a six mile radius . The target group and people using and purchasing the memberships are right within this area. A nonmember survey was also done . We want to get a similar number of responses from nonmembers . We put those out in the lobby for about a month period. Also during the time of this, the Community Center pool was down for maintenance and the pool filter system, so we put those over at Oak Point as well, because our members have availability at not only the Community Center, but over at Oak Point . We wanted to get a wide variety of nonusers to find out what would encourage them to purchase a membership. Our memberships compared to 1997, we had 317 total number of memberships . In 1998, we sold 406. That serves about 1300 people . V. NEW BUSINESS Mr. Frey commented on the special meeting in February. Oak Point Pool and the expenses of that facility. It was asked by the City Council that we bring that type of issue to this committee to discuss and proposed meeting with the Oak Point Joint Powers Facility Group on Friday of this week and we will present that to them and from there we would like to meet with this group and look for recommendations on that proposal . We would like to do that as soon as possible from a standpoint if we are going to make major changes so both the City and the school can prepare in their budgets to do that . Ms . Zetah commented on the Joint Powers Agreement with regards to the Oak Point School, which specifies that is the group that makes those decisions . If there is a conflict over things with it, there is already specified in the Joint Powers Agreement that it is to go to arbitration. This has been built into this formal agreement . It does not go to another committee . Eventually it will be the City Council and the School Board that will decide whether it goes to arbitration if this committee cannot work things out among the staff and members . Ms . Zetah suggested recommendation from the staff group what they think the Joint Powers Agreement should look like and also recommendations from this group that represents citizens and what their recommendation is . B. Review Actual Fees and Charges from 1998 Mr. Lambert commented on how much the City paid for the use of school facilities and how much the school paid for City facilities between those two years and what differences there were, if there were any, and any comments . It was discussed the rentals being stopped, and if we were seeing the effect of that . The use continued as normal, but instead of charging a lowered rental cost for every program, it involved the hours the building was open and if there was more than one program at that facility. It was charged on a staffing basis . It was questioned: What was the usage on a daily basis for each of the facilities, where the City was, and what number of hours was the City there as the only reason the building was being opened, versus how many hours was the actual use . The City was using school facilities 1212 and three quarters hours, and of that amount 674 and a half hours were strictly City use . It was at a 56 percent rate that we were staffing for City use . It was suggested we come up with a charge for next year. It was proposed 60 percent for next year. C. Determining Meeting Schedule for 1999 It was discussed how often to meet . It was decided to meet every three months . April 28 . June 23 . October 13 . All meetings at 7 p.m. as tentative dates . VI . DISCUSSION ITEMS FOR THE APRIL MEETING 1) Performing Arts Center. 2) Prairie Dome update on usage at that point . 3) City requests for the use of the dome, regarding adult soccer leagues . 4) Early spring softball tournament as a possibility. VII . OTHER ITEMS It was discussed operating free use of the dome for a fund raiser for a tournament . It was suggested a minimum of a certain number of hours rented, and then a group can get free time for a fund raiser. A larger user would make more sense . VIII . ADJOURMENT Informal meeting. Ending at 9 p.m.