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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01.10.18 Parks and Rec MinutesFarmington Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes from the January 10, 2018 Regular Meeting Members Present: Laurie Suchanek, David McMillen, and Dustin Johnson Members Absent: John Moore Other’s Present: Parks and Recreation Director Randy Distad I. Call Meeting To Order Chair Johnson called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Quorum was present. II. Approval of January 10, 2018 Meeting Agenda Moved by McMillen and seconded by Suchanek to approve the meeting agenda. All persons in favor (APIF). Motion carried. III. Approval of December 13, 2017 Regular Meeting Minutes The meeting minutes were approved with no revisions noted. IV. Presentations There were no presentations. V. Business Items A. Approve 2018 Work Plan Distad shared the draft plan was created based on the discussion that occurred during the December 13, 2017 Commission meeting. He requested the Commission provide any additions or corrections to the work plan. It was identified in a couple of locations that the formatting should be cleaned up, so it is consistent formatting all the way through the plan. Distad shared he would address this issue. Moved by Suchanek and seconded by McMillen to approve the Commission’s 2018 Work Plan. APIF. Motion carried. B. 2040 Comprehensive Plan Distad provided an overview of the executive summary document by reviewing each of the headings and summarizing the information included under each heading. He shared that the comments made at the November meeting were incorporated into the document. He informed Commission members the Rambling River Center Advisory Board reviewed the document at its January 8, 2018 meeting and recommended to include language about the city’s being accessible to all. Distad also provided an overview of the park, trail and open space plan map including that the map shows existing locations of parks and trails and future parks and trail locations. He shared the map was updated based on the comments made during the December 13, 2017 meeting about adding additional trails in locations where there were longer loops being shown. He requested the Commission formally approve both the executive summary and the map, so they can both be provided to the consultant who is assisting the city with the 2040 Comprehensive Plan. He shared the Commission would see both of these documents again and after local jurisdictions are able to review and provide comments on both documents. At that time, the Commission will be asked to approve both documents, so they can go to the Planning Commission and City Council as part of the complete 2040 Comprehensive Plan document. Moved by McMillen and seconded by Suchanek to approve the draft parks and recreation executive summary and the existing and proposed park, open space and trail plan map. APIF. Motion carried. C. New Neighborhood Park Naming Contest Distad informed Commission members that one of their responsibilities is to provide a recommended park name for new parks. He informed Commission members because the Regetta Fields development has received final plat approval by the City Council, the Commission can move forward with starting the process to name the neighborhood park in the development. He shared in the past park names have sometime copied the development name. There has also been a few times where the Commission has held a park naming contest with the public providing ideas for park names. He asked the Commission to have a discussion about what approach it would like to take with the park name for this development and what length of time it desires to take to come up with a name. McMillen shared that he supports a public naming process like what was used for Prairie Pines Park and Marigold Park, which were the two most recent parks that were named. Distad shared if the Commission was interested in having a contest for the public to come up with names for the park then perhaps the Community Expo being held on January 27 would be a good time to kick off this contest because names could be collected during the Expo. He said the names submitted could then be brought to the February 14 Commission meeting and a name could be picked. Suchanek shared she would like to see the naming contest be shorter rather than a long drawn out process. She suggested to keep the contest open through the end of February and then the submitted names could be reviewed at the March 14 Commission meeting. She also felt it should be advertised through the city’s social media accounts and on the city’s website. Distad shared that the last time there was a park naming contest the city provided a pool punch card and a open skate punch card to the winners. He felt that a open skate punch card could be provided, but because the pool will no longer be open, the pool punch card would not be provided. Suchanek would like to see more prizes offered as an incentive to get more people to submit names. She volunteered to contact the Farmington Business Association and see if some of the local businesses would be willing to provide gift cards or gift certificates for the naming contest. Commission members felt this was a great idea and encouraged her to do so. Suchanek moved to approve a public park naming contest for the park in the Regetta Fields development with a submittal end date of February 28, 2018 and attempt to provide prizes from local businesses to the person submitting the winning entry. Motion was seconded by McMillen. APIF. Motion carried. D. Bike Pedestrian Plan Grant Application Distad explained to Commission members the park and recreation chapter in the 2040 Comprehensive Plan includes a goal to complete a bike and pedestrian plan for the city. He shared Dakota County is currently accepting Statewide Health Improvement Partnership (SHIP) program grant application for planning items such as a bike and pedestrian plan. He share there have been four other communities in Dakota County who have received this funding in the past to complete a bike and pedestrian plan. He reviewed the grant application and the city of Apple Valley’s bike and pedestrian plan. He informed Commission members that there is a 10% local match requirement that could be met either through a cash match or an in-kind match through staff time devoted to the development of a bike and pedestrian plan. He shared that if the city applies for grant funding, it would be for the maximum amount of $35,000, which would require the city to provide either $3,500 in cash to match or provide an equal value in staff time as an in-kind match. He thought that the 10% match requirement could be met through staff time devoted to the planning, but in case this were not to happen, then the back up would be to provide either a full or partial match of cash. He suggested the Park Improvement Fund be the source of the $3,500 cash match because there are enough funds to cover the cash match requirement. Finally, he shared that an important part of the grant requirement is to have a committee or task force made up of various interests in the community to help steer the plan. He shared there would be one seat on the committee for the Commission. The selection of the member would occur only if the grant application is approved for funding. He requested the Commission discuss this and then provide a recommendation to the City Council approving the submittal of a SHIP grant application to Dakota County. Moved by McMillen and seconded by Suchanek to recommend to the City Council the approval of submitting a SHIP program grant application to Dakota County to fund the development of a city bike and pedestrian plan and to use up to $3,500 from the Park Improvement Fund to provide the cash match requirement for the grant application. APIF. Motion carried. VI. Discussion Items A. City Communication Guide Distad reviewed the City Council adopted City Communication Guide with Commission members. It was noted by the Commission that guide should be updated to remove the language about the city calendar being mailed to households because this is no longer done. Distad shared he would make the city’s Communication Specialist aware of this. B. Meet with Rambling River Center Advisory Board Chair Johnson shared because this was a goal on the 2018 Work Plan, the Commission should start looking at some possible dates to have the meeting, so the dates can be shared with Rambling River Center Advisory Board members. McMillen shared he thought it would be best to wait until all of the Commission members were present to discuss possible meeting dates in order to make sure the date(s) selected to share with advisory board members works for all Commission members. By consensus it was agreed that this item should be discussed further at the next Commission meeting assuming all members are present. C. Review Park Improvement Fund 5 Year Capital Improvement Plan Distad reviewed the draft document included in the packet. He shared this draft plan matches up with the improvements shown in the 2040 Comprehensive Plan’s five year schedule except that 2023 is not shown on the comp plan’s document because it is from 2018-2022. He shared the Commission still has time to review it and make a recommendation to the City Council because the city’s budget process has not started yet. Suchanek wondered where the arena’s five year plan is because she didn’t see any improvement items in the plan for the arena. Distad shared that the arena is not included in this plan because it is only for parks and only parks are funded through the Park Improvement Fund. McMillen asked if the Lake Julia fishing dock could looked at for improvements because sometimes when the water level is high, it overflows onto the connecting sidewalk, which creates access issues. Distad shared this would be a maintenance item and he will make park maintenance staff aware of this to see what can be done about this issue. There were no revisions made and the Commission by consensus felt it was worth having a continued discussion on the plan at a future meeting. D. Draft 2017 Annual Work Plan Distad reviewed the draft work plan and shared the goals included were previously discussed by the Commission. Chair McMilllen asked if there were any revisions Commission members would like to make to the draft work plan. Since there were no revisions identified, the 2017 Annual Work Plan will be brought back to the February 8, 2017 Commission meeting for formal approval. This will give new Commission members an opportunity to review and learn more about the work plan during the meeting. VII. Commission Roundtable Suchanek: Didn’t have anything to share. McMillen: Reminded Commission members about the Farmington VFW Steak Fry Fundraiser for the Rambling River Center being held on January 20 and about the Community Expo being held at the Farmington High School on January 27. Johnson: Didn’t have anything to share. VIII. Staff Report A. Rambling River Center Replacement Project Distad shared the roof project is not completed yet. The cold weather and snow have hampered the contractor with finishing the project, so it can be final inspected by the roof membrane manufacturer and the 15 year Warranty Certificate can be provided to the city. B. Outdoor Rinks The weather has been either too warm or too cold over the past month causing the warming house to have close periodically because of the weather extremes. Other than the weather, the rest of the operations has been going well. C. Project Updates Shared the department has several projects to complete this year including: 1. Outdoor basketball courts resurfaced at Evergreen Knoll Park and Dakota County Estates Park. 2. Fire Station #1 will have its existing concrete apron on the back of the fire station removed and a new concrete apron poured. 3. Outfield fence on field #2 at Feely Fields will be removed and replaced. 4. Pool demolition will occur sometime in the spring. 5. Prairie Pines Park will receive site work such as grubbing and removing of trees and vegetation, filling the site and grading for drainage and this work will occur later this summer 6. All exterior entrance doors at the arena will be replaced D. Farmington Youth Baseball Association Presentation Distad shared youth baseball has undergone some restructuring and until the restructuring has been completed they will be unable to make their presentation to the Commission. It is hopeful the presentation will occur later this spring once their program is up and running. E. City Email and Website Address Changes The city will be undergoing a change to its domain name. It will be going from ci.farmington.mn.us to farmingtonmn.gov. F. New Commission Member The City Council has appointed Neil Ramdhan as the newest Commission member. He will start serving his term at the February 14, 2018 meeting. IX. February 14, 2018 Meeting Agenda Items The following items were identified by Commission members for its December 10, 2014 meeting agenda: 1. 2040 Comprehensive Plan update 2. Review 2018 Work Plan 3. Election of chair and vice-chair 4. Joint meeting with Rambling River Center Advisory Board 5. Introduction of new Commission member 6. Regetta Fields development park names update X. Adjournment Moved by Suchanek and seconded by McMillen to adjourn the meeting. APIF. Motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 8:01 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, Randy Distad Parks and Recreation Director and Recording Secretary