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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPRCMinutes-20100413 City of Hastings Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes Parks & Recreation Conference Room April 13, 2010 – 6:00 pm Roll Call at 6 pm 1) : Commissioners Flaten, Schommer, Rohloff, and Smith, Parks & Recreation Director Bernstein, Superintendent Smith, Cory Likes Absent: Commissioners Miller and Vandehoef February and March Minutes 2) : Motion to approve both February and March minutes by Commissioner Smith. Seconded by Commissioner Flaten. Passed unanimously. Setting Agenda 3) : Agenda topics 15 & 18 will be moved to come directly after 10. Departmental Updates 4) : Department updates were passed out to the commissioners. This is Kevin’s last meeting and our newly appointed Parks & Recreation Maintenance Supervisor, Cory Likes, is in attendance tonight. There was a job title change from Superintendent to Supervisor, and Cory will be handling a lot of Kevin’s responsibilities. Kevin’s administrative duties are being shifted to other staff in the department. Six new bikes have been acquired free of charge from the National Parks Service by the City and will be loaned out to residents wishing to use our trail system. Jared Flewellen included an explanation of this year’s field distribution. The department did their best to accommodate all the groups, including the new baseball group addition. Field users have not been happy with the distributions, but to make it as fair as possible, compromises had to be made by all parties. This only includes City fields, not School fields. The main issues come up with the older youth baseball groups, as we don’t have many fields set up to handle this type of usage. Open Seat in the PRC 5) : We have been advertising for the vacancy left by Commissioner Tessmer-Tuck and have had one applicant, Jennifer Garrett. The commissioners reviewed her application at the meeting. MOTION: Motion by Commissioner Rohloff to forward the applicant, Jennifer Garrett, to City Council for appointment to the PRC. Seconded by Commissioner Smith. Passed unanimously. Alcohol Sales at Vets Park 6) : Director Bernstein has developed a permit application form with a fee of $50 per event day. Our current city ordinance only allows 3.2% liquor to be brought into the park. Commissioner Schommer felt that since the Hawks don’t have tournaments, $50 for one game might be pretty steep and we should use a flat fee. Bernstein questioned how to have a flat fee if we have multiple vendors applying? Would it be a floating scale? Commissioner Smith asked if there would only be one vendor per game and was told that yes, that is how the application is written. Currently, there are two vendors interested that we know of, and they would like to split the games right down the middle and have a one-time fee for the season. Schommer felt that it would be wise to lock the two vendors into an agreement for a 12 games and charge them a flat fee for those games, possibly $250. Smith mentioned that with only two vendors interested, that would work this year, but may be more difficult in the future if more vendors want to apply. Some Hawks games are better attended than others, so games would have to be divided fairly based on expected attendance. A couple of other possibilities that were discussed included doing a raffle or putting it up for bid. After discussion, the bid option made the most sense to the PRC. The City would send out a bid notice just like we do for construction projects. The bid will be a “winner take all” scenario and will be for the entire season. The minimum bid amount will be set at $500. Each bid will only be able to be submitted by one vendor (i.e., two vendors can’t combine into one bid) as the business who wins the bid will receive the permit and will have to have a liquor license. This process will only apply for Hawks games at Vets Park. The application will state that vendors must stop alcohol sales by th 9:00 PM or the 7 inning, whichever comes first, and be cleaned up and ready to go by 9:45 PM. MOTION: Commissioner Rohloff motioned to bring the application with the bid process forward to the City Council. Seconded by Commissioner Smith. Passed unanimously. Volleyball Court at Wallin 7) : Staff would like to remove the sand volleyball court at CP Adams which is in poor condition and potentially move it to Wallin Park. People would be able to use it at night in the new location because of the rink lighting that is there. A neighborhood meeting would need to be held to get public input. The original plans for that Wallin Park did call for a volleyball court. This is just a conceptual idea at this point, however a sand court could be made at minimal cost to the City. Commissioner Flaten mentioned he thought a basketball court might be a more popular addition with the neighborhood. Director Bernstein stated that a basketball court would not be feasible right now due to budget constraints. The PRC agreed with the idea of having a neighborhood meeting to discuss this addition. One will be scheduled for early summer. Upgrades at Wallin Park / Raider Nation Baseball Request 8) : The department has received a request from HYAA to allow upgrades to the fields at Wallin Park at HYAA’s expense. The requests are to enclose the fields, have temporary mounds, cement slabs for the dugouts, dugouts with aluminum roofs, grass infields, and move home plate farther from backstop. They’ve also requested to skin the existing field at Pioneer for the grass infields, but this may be an issue due to other users who use Pioneer Park. Raider Nation wants to do upgrades at Lions Park which now includes dugouts. Commissioner Rohloff stated that he thinks we should set the requirements for any improvements that are done in our parks, not the requesting organizations. These organizations should be filling out the Park Improvement Request form that the PRC developed and then we should have neighborhood meetings to get public input on the proposed changes. Commissioner Schommer would like to see the competing organizations work together for the good of Hastings as a whole. He also felt that organizations shouldn’t be allowed to dictate which improvements are made at which fields, since our fields are used by the entire community and have to be shared. If an organization wants to donate money to the City for improvement, that’s wonderful, but it shouldn’t give them exclusive use or special privileges. There have been complaints from both parties about the way fields were distributed this year, but staff followed the established Field Priority policy in making the assignments. These are neighborhood parks, not athletic complexes. The upgrades that are being requested are a concern because they may cause the City more maintenance, they may attract more vandalism, and they may not be attractive in a neighborhood park setting. The PRC felt that any improvements should go through the established Park Improvement Request practice and that any designs should be guided by the department so that our parks retain some uniformity. It was mentioned that if the two organizations could work together, the money could be put towards making one very nice field. MOTION: Commissioner Rohloff motioned to hold neighborhood meetings for both Lions and Wallin Parks before any improvements are made. Seconded by Commissioner Smith. Passed unanimously. Veterans Ball Field Plan 9) : We received a grant for $5,000 to design a plan for a youth addition to Veterans Complex. There are a lot of construction grants for active play areas which the department would like to pursue. We needed to have a formal plan in order to apply for these grants. We got input from the primary user groups, HYAA and Raider Nation. It is all a concept at this point – nothing is set in stone. It is a tool to help us seek outside funding for this project. Brauer and Associates did the plan and they were the same ones who did our Park Comprehensive Plan. Commissioner Rohloff mentioned that a way to get additional funding might be to allow naming rights for the fields. For example, “XYZ Company Field at Veterans Park”. Director Bernstein mentioned that we’re still not sure if HEDRA will allow us to use this property without a large cost. On a related topic, Commissioner Flaten asked about the youth soccer tournament that was held at Veterans Park last year and the issues with not enough concessions or restrooms. Staff followed the parameters that were given to us by the MYSA but they grossly underestimated. This year, we will be doubling the restrooms and increase the concessions. th August 10 Primary Date 10) : General consensus was to cancel the meeting for August unless there is some pressing issue that comes up. Met Council Request 11) : Met Council currently has a water monitoring station for the Vermillion River inside the Con Agra Mill. The equipment is getting old and they would like to move it to Vermillion Falls Park. City staff met with them. The station is more like a small box which would be enclosed with some natural border. The location is above the falls on the north side of the trail in a corner that would have minimal impact. This would allow easier access for Met Council and staff doesn’t feel it is an issue. It would benefit the water quality of the Vermillion River. MOTION : Commissioner Smith motioned to pursue working with Met council on this station and give the PRC’s support to the project. Seconded by Commissioner Flaten. Passed unanimously. Commission Name Change 12) : The request to change the name of the NRRC to the Parks & Recreation Commission was approved by City Council. DBA Meeting 13) : Director Bernstein met with Downtown Business Association about a $7,000 grant we received from Dakota County Active Living for bike racks on our trails. These would be more decorative racks – possibly even custom to fit the history of the downtown area. Director Bernstein received input from the DBA about the placement of the racks in the downtown area. Way finding Signs 14) : The department received another grant for way finding signs throughout out trail system. We will be trying to make loops within the main trail loop with way finding sign to show people how to utilize a smaller segment of our trail system. Lakeville did some in this way and received rave reviews. Staff is not sure exactly what the signs will look like at this point. We are trying to bundle our orders with other cities to get a better price on the materials. Commissioner Flaten asked if the large loop trail goes through the Industrial Park. It does, but our maps haven’t been updated yet. This is the new section that was just added and we haven’t had time to sign it yet. We will make sure to add a sign for this new section to help people find it. Hastings to Red Wing Trail 15) : There is a concept design/preliminary route of a trail from Hastings to Red Wing. Many surrounding communities have approved the plan and Hastings has been asked to approve it as well. MOTION: Commissioner Rohloff motioned to approve this concept plan and bring it forward to City Council. Seconded by Commissioner Smith. Passed unanimously. Old Business: 16)  Paul Mahoney became a certified arborist. Congratulations Paul!  Thanks to Kevin for his service to the Commission. MOTION to adjourn. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 11th at the Parks & Recreation Office. Adjourned at 7:38 p.m. MOTION to re-open the meeting at 7:40 p.m. by Commissioner Flaten. Seconded by Commissioner Rohloff. Passed unanimously. Open Mike: 17) Will Hilton & Jim Olson from Raider Nation baseball explained that they would like to do permanent fence dugout structure instead of a temporary one. The sketch drawing that was included in the packet is no longer valid. Jared had told them that if they made the dugouts out of chain link with a wind screen, this would be more like what is currently in our parks and might be a better option. That is the option they would like to bring forward. It was explained that the PRC discussed this topic earlier in the evening and felt that since this is more of a permanent structure, a neighborhood meeting would need to be held. Raider Nation also asked about putting up banners in the park. This topic was discussed at the March meeting and the decision is in the March minutes. They questioned why HYAA is allowed to have boxes on fields with their name on it. It was explained that this was a storage box, not advertising, and Raider Nation would be allowed the same opportunity for storage. The cement pads under them have been put in by the City in the past and so we would do that again. These boxes belong to the organizations and the City is not responsible for any damages to them. After some more discussion regarding the field distribution, the topic was closed. Adjourned at 7:53 p.m. Minutes submitted by Kristin Behrens