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Home My WebLink About06-09-2009 NRRC 02 May Minutes City of Hastings Natural Resources and Recreation Commission Minutes Parks & Recreation Conference Room May 12, 2009 – 6:00 pm 1) Roll Call at 6 pm: Commissioners Flaten, Miller, Rohloff, Smith, Tessmer-Tuck and Vandehoef, Superintendent Smith, Parks and Recreation Director Bernstein. Absent: Commissioner Schommer 2) Approved April meeting minutes. Motion by Tessmer-Tuck. Seconded by Miller. Passed unanimously. Setting Agenda 3) – Added Vet’s Park Donation Update, MN Youth Soccer Tournament, Sign Placement Policy, Graffiti in Parks 4) Departmental updates were reviewed with NRRC members. Seasonal help for the summer has been cut from 7 to 3 this year due to budget constraints. Also, one of our full-time maintenance operators just resigned. With that in mind, we have to cut back on mowing in lower-use areas, for instance, from once a week to once every two weeks (ponding basins). Athletic fields will still be mowed as before. Trim crews go into areas that large mowers can’t get to and this will also be reduced in some lower-use areas. Pearock replacement at playgrounds has been put on hold, but we will still be adding to the playgrounds that already have mulch. Wilson, Cari, and Sunny Acres are next on the list for replacement. Maintenance Operations – Mowing: 5) This was covered in department updates. Boat Dock/Lake Isabel Dock 6) – Both are currently in for the season. The Lake Isabel dock is already being used by fishermen. It took about a ½ a day for our staff to install the Lake Isabel dock this spring. MRPA Award of Excellence Application 7) – Director Bernstein turned in an application for an Award of Excellence for the Mississippi Overlook project. Levee Park Committee Recommendations 8) – The Committee met four to five times and came up with recommendations that the committee would like to bring forward to Council. Councilmember Slavik has asked us to wait until the June meeting to bring these recommendations forward due to the absence of some councilmembers on th May 18. Barry reviewed the recommendations with the NRRC. Both the NRRC and the Levee Park Committee preferred option #3. We’re working with the National Park Service on a possible Visitor Center. Burying of the power lines and poles has proven to be too costly. MnDot has stated that they will pay for a monopole on the west side of the bridge, but they will not pay for one on the east side. The City has taken the position that because of the bridge project, both poles should be replaced so that they match. Anything that would be done to Levee Park would have a great amount of public input first. The report will be sent to the Levee Park Committee members in draft form via email now that it has been reviewed by Councilmember Slavik and NRRC. We will be relying on the National Park Service to champion the Visitor Center and fundraising opportunities. Hastings is one of eight locations the NPS has been identified to place a Visitor Center. Motion: Rohloff motioned that the NRRC has reviewed the recommendations and supports bringing it forward to City Council as is. Miller seconded. Passed unanimously. Joint Powers Information 9) – The NRRC was given some other updates regarding the Joint Powers Agreement and how it is managed. The NRRC has an interest in making sure the agreement is as fair to both parties as possible. There has been minimal change to the agreement since 1973 except for the increase in adult user fees. If the City did not pay those user fees to Community Education, there is a question as to whether or not Community Ed would be able to offer the services they do. Vandehoef believes that we need to start seriously looking at getting the key people together to revise this agreement. Softball players do not mind playing the $26 per player as long as they are seeing improvements to the park. Committee of Council members seem to understand the position but this is a sensitive political issue. There is a desire to make sure that everything is balanced in the agreement. There are currently no user fees for youth sports with the City at this time, although that may need to be reviewed in the future. It was noted however that HYAA has been a generous contributor to projects. Tessmer-Tuck thinks that with the economic situation, this is a good time to review all agreements and make sure they are still equitable and fair. Smith suggested having a periodic review of all agreements with potential adjustments to it on a timetable. Bernstein will gather some more numbers and facts and will review this with the NRRC at the next meeting. NEW BUSINESS: 10) Graffiti in Parks – There have been a couple of major incidents in the past few weeks. One major occurrence was at Roadside Park, where paint was dumped all over and picnic tables were sprayed. You can find graffiti in new places every day in Hastings. When staff sees symbols, they take pictures and call the Police Dept. Staff attempts to remove graffiti as soon as possible. It generally gets cleaned up on a weekly basis. Safety issues are taken care of more immediately. Flaten suggested putting surveillance cameras up in parks where we have major issues. For what we are spending to remove it and the cost of the playground equipment, it would be worth it to have them. Vandehoef mentioned that they put a camera up in one IGH park, and it was stolen, so the cameras need to be hidden. Superintendent Smith said that toward the end of school, graffiti issues get worse but kind of taper off during the summer. Barry said that we did research some cameras for the pool already and that lighting is also a possible deterrent. Lighting was added to Riverwood Park and has worked well in that situation. Parks close at 10:00 p.m. with the exception of Vets and the tennis courts. We do encourage all residents to call the Police when there is an issue. Vets Park Donation Update – Hawks received a $5,000 sponsorship contribution from Smead which is being spent on the park updates. Sandwich Board Signs – City ordinance says that signs can be in public right-of-way but they have to be 15 feet off of the curb. When Barry discussed an application policy before, City Council didn’t want to address it at this time. There is also MNDOT right-of-way and MNDOT does on occasion pull signs. Smith asked if there is any penalty – the ordinance has no penalty, but signs can be removed. Generally, the YMCA and the HYAA have been very good about notifying us in advance. th Soccer Tournament – Meeting to host U10 Boys and Girls tournament potentially on June 13. This is a one-day tournament and will generate some revenue. This will be at Vets. We will receive money for each field plus concessions. 96 teams will come into our community. The NRRC questioned if we had enough parking at Vet’s for this event, but MYSA representatives stated that Vet’s Park was the largest parking area they’ve had to host this tournament. They schedule teams in hourly blocks, so not all will be there at once. st DNR WMA Property – The City received notice that a portion of the property off of 31 Street is being put up for sale. Part of that property sale is a direct reflection of the DNR obtaining the Frietag property. In order to get hunting in Frietag property, the City wanted the southern WMA removed. The other part of the property will remain an SMA. Eagle Bluff – City is waiting on legislature to see if there is money to put the basketball court in this year. We’re in a holding pattern, but nothing has been eliminated at this point. June Tour of the Parks ? Barry will get a TRAC bus so that the NRRC can go on a tour for the June meeting. If there are any places that the NRRC wishes to visit, please notify staff. Miller asked if we could see the LeDuc mansion? There will be no meeting in July due to summer travel schedules. MOTION to adjourn. Next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 9th at the Parks & Recreation Office. Adjourned at 7:29 p.m. Minutes submitted by Kristin Behrens