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HomeMy WebLinkAboutmin-june-24, 09 City of Columbia Heights Park and Recreation Commission June 24, 2009 Eileen Evans called the meeting to order at 5:43 p.m. ROLL CALL Members present: Eileen Evans; Tom Greenhalgh; Stan Hoium; Marsha Stroik; Kevin Hansen, Public Works Director/City Engineer; Keith Windschitl, Recreation Director APPROVAL CONSENT AGENDA Evans asked on the JPM expense report what the alcohol & gambling enforcement, consumption license is for. Windschitl indicated that is the license posted by the bar and he looked into the validity of it with the State of Minnesota. It is a legitimate requirement every year and is a consumption permit for public buildings that serve alcohol. Stroik asked about the garage space allocation. Windschitl indicated that is on the Public Works expense report but there is an expense shared by all departments for garage space regarding maintenance on vehicles. Hansen would be able to answer why it is a big lump sum on that line item. Hoium asked about the maintenance contract with Honeywell and if that expense is going away. Windschitl indicated that issues regarding the heating a cooling has not been settled. Once those are fixed the contract will be renegotiated and the new system will be commissioned. The final payment has not been paid until the problems are fixed and the final results have been signed off on. Honeywell did promise to reduce costs by $15,000 per year for JPM. Motion by Hoium, second by Greenhalgh, to approve consent agenda. Upon vote: All Motion Carried. ayes. LETTERS AND REQUESTS None at this time. OLD BUSINESS A. Update on status of Park Construction projects: Sullivan Lake, Silver Lake Beach and Huset Park Shelter/Playground Evans indicated that the park at Silver Lake Beach is covered with weeds. She asked Hansen if the City paid for hydro seeding. Hansen explained that the hydro seeding was done too late last year. Employees are not mowing the area because they are trying to get the contractor to redo the area. Hansen updated the Commission that both Sullivan Lake and Silver Lake Parks are considered complete with exception of punch list items. Plants need to be replaced and tuff needs to get reestablished. The punch list for each park is about two pages long. The shelter at Huset Park is nearing completion. Cap locks are on but the construction of it was not done well and will be redone. The three areas of the playground will be divided up for equipment. The large area will consist of two playground areas for 2 – 5 year olds and 5 – 12 year olds. The middle and smallest area will have a digger and sand pit. The medium size area will have six to eight swings. All areas will be handicap accessible. This is a large structure and just the playground equipment alone will be $50,000 plus. Hoium asked if the work was done in-house. Hansen replied that the grading, backfilling and drain tile would be completed in-house. The shelter and concrete was contracted out. Hoium asked if the shelter would have grills and tables. Hansen replied that the grills will be near the shelter and 6 tables are on order. ADA code states that 50% of the tables under the shelter need to be handicap accessible. B. Update on playground fundraiser (Auto World Youth Foundation) Windschitl indicated that the playground fundraiser overall did not offer as high of results as planned. The Friday night dinner at Murzyn Hall was well attended and ran very smoothly. The Lions Club had good bar sales and the auction went well. The Saturday event was well planned but was not well attended. He indicated that the families and kids in attendance had a great time and really got their monies worth in entertainment. Prior to the event Windschitl sent a letter to the neighborhood with details about the event. One resident did made contact about getting some help for parking during the event because they were having a graduation open house on the same day. Windschitl asked permission from Immaculate Conception to use a small corner of their parking lot incase additional parking was needed for their family. The resident parked their own vehicle in that area of the parking lot and ended up being towed by Jeff’s, Bobby & Steve’s Auto. Windschitl called the contact person at Immaculate and the CH Police Department and know one could tell who called on the vehicle and there was no paperwork available. The initial request was made about two months prior to the event. He spoke with Jeff Bahe at Jeff’s, Bobby & Steve’s to waive the fee for towing and storage. Hoium indicated that he spoke with the resident involved and he said that Windschitl was great to work with and was thankful for his help. Windschitl indicated that the financial results have not been reported to him about the donation to the City. Evans stated that she did not see very much advertising for the fundraiser. Stroik stated that she saw a lot of posters for it and an insert in the paper. She also felt that information regarding whom the proceeds were benefiting was not clear. NEW BUSINESS A. John P. Murzyn Hall security Windschitl indicated that the Chief of Police does believe that this is a duty that should be assigned for the officers of the Police Department. Reserve Officers have been working the JPM detail recently. Windschitl feels that this is a positive change to use a security officer that has a more specific training for these types of events at JPM. The CSOs and Reserve Officers are not trained in dealing with alcohol related events. This new system will also cost less to the JPM budget. Evans has experienced problems in personal situations with private security companies. Hoium stated his desire for Peterson to be in attendance to explain how a decision on removing the security detail from the Columbia Heights Police Department, CHPD, can be made without discussion. Hoium indicated that while working the bar for many events he feels that guests respond better when seeing a Columbia Heights badge and that has more impact than a private security company with no direct connection to the City and the Police Department. Stroik suggested using Heights residents that are police officers in other cities and having them work privately. Windschitl responded that ultimately the City Council would approve this decision. Windschitl informed the Commission that he did research private security companies. The first contact he made was to Earle Brown in Brooklyn Center because they have always used private security. He was referred to Wolfe Security and G4S Wackenhut. Windschitl met with both companies regarding armed and unarmed security at JPM events. Cost proposals were received from both companies Evans asked what the liability would be to the City when having an armed officer working that is not employed directly by the City. Windschitl responded that the company would be contracted with the City and would provide insurance listing the City as additional insured. He would also work with the CHPD to meet and work with the private security detail due to the fact that they would ultimately have interactions. Evans asked if an employee of JPM would be on duty with a private security officer. Windschitl replied that is the current policy and would continue to be the case. He stated one concern was if a different officer would be on duty with each new event and the companies indicated that there are typically five or so officers assigned to one account. This alleviates problems of new officers not knowing the policies of JPM. Windschitl indicated G4S Wackenhut was the low bid. The contract would be for one year of service. G4S Wackenhut only hires officers with previous military experience or officers being trained in the police field. A 30 day notice is requered to back out of the contract. Evans asked if the renter would cover the total cost of security. Windschitl indicated yes. Hoium stated that he always felt the CSO’s did a good job at the events he worked bars for the Lion’s Club, but generally have not had rowdy events. Hoium asked if an unarmed security officer could be hired to save costs during events. Windschitl replied that we would have the option to reserve either type of officer. Greenhalgh asked if during an event where two officers are on duty if one could be armed and one unarmed. Windschitl indicated that is what staff would do. Motion by Greenhalgh, second by Hoium, to move forward with G4S Wackenhut as the private security company for John P. Murzyn Hall events and bring it to the City Council Motion Carried. for approval. Upon vote: All ayes. B. John P. Murzyn Hall open bar policy Windschitl stated that this subject has been discussed over the years and JPM is one of the few facilities to offer the option of bringing in private alcohol. He does not feel that there is a problem with bringing in outside food. There are times during an open bar that families are using young bartenders under 21 years of age and they do not always card people or know when to cut some one off. Windschitl proposes eliminating the open bar policy. He suggests changing the policy effective immediately with all new JPM rentals. Renters will continue to have the option to use the Columbia Heights Lions Club as no cost to the renter. The second option will be to use a licensed liquor establishment to serve the alcohol at no charge to the guests; the renter would pay negotiate and pay for drinks to the business. The Park & Recreation Commission could make exceptions to this policy. Windschitl restated that the Lions Club would continue to be the only group allowed to hold a cash bar. Existing renters would be encouraged to use a trained bartender for any current open bar. Motion by Stroik, second by Greenhalgh, to institute a no open bar policy effective immediately on all future rentals, current rentals would be allowed an open bar with the Motion discretion and guidance of the Recreation Department. Upon vote: All ayes. Carried. C. Circle Terrace Playground area use Hansen indicated the Parks Foreman has recommended the removal of the equipment on Circle Terrace due to problems listed from the CH Police Department in that area including vandalism and social problems. There is a basketball hoop and some older playground equipment in that location. Hansen suggests waiting for the opinion of Mayor Peterson before a decision is made. D. Insurance review of sliding hills Hansen indicated that the insurance company has done this in the past. The League of Minnesota Cities was asked to review the sliding hills at Silver Lake Beach and Keyes Park. They made recommendations and are requesting a formal response. Hansen suggests reading the recommendations for future discussion and posting Silver Lake Beach as a no sliding hill. One more suggestion in the report is to post extra signage at Keyes Park with warnings of sliding at your own risk and install more fencing to direct sliding in a safer direction. E. 2010 Parks Capital Improvement requests Hansen passed out a handout to the Commission. He asked the members to read through the packet for future discussion. Hansen indicated that Ramsdell Park is listed for improvements due to no action taken by the Council. Playground replacement in the amount of $55,000 is also listed in the request incase there is not enough funding received from the Auto World Foundation Fundraiser. REPORTS A. Recreation Director Windschitl indicated that regarding the new City Gym there is a punch list that is being worked on. The air conditioning began working yesterday. The summer Recreation Programs are using the gym several times a week and the CHPD is having open gym time every Tuesday afternoon. Fitness equipment is still being worked on and might possibly be received with the equipment from the School District or will be purchased. The office is in need of a phone and a computer for registration programs and general work. Windschitl received a complaint from a resident across the street from Prestemon Park. He brought up previous concerns of missing garbage cans and stated that he witnessed public urination. Windschitl requested additional garbage cans with the Parks Foreman. There are signs posted with no drinking allowed and the Men’s Softball League does not have any late night games at this park. Windschitl indicated that the summer program enrollment numbers are doing well. The Jamboree events will begin Thursday evening with the Fishing Clinic, Heights Idol will be on Saturday night. The fireworks on Saturday evening will have pre-blasts going off every hour beginning at 7:00 p.m. to give people a warning that the fireworks will be happening. The hope is to get more people aware that the fireworks will be happening and a larger number in attendance. The parade will be on Friday. The Men’s Softball Tournament will have 19 teams. The Ambassador Program will be ending this year. The Parade Reception will be held at JPM on Friday evening and the Ambassador Farewell will be on Sunday. B. Public Works Director/City Engineer Hansen reported that the Public Works Department is focused and working hard on preparations for Jamboree. C. Commission Members Hoium recognized that Windschitl worked really hard over the weekend for the Auto World Foundation Fundraiser. Windschitl replied the event came together really well and was too bad that more people did not attend. Hansen replied that the setup for the event was a good layout. Evans suggested for Commission Members to volunteer on a regular basis to be responsible for keeping check and coordinating the cleanup within City Parks. With the Public Works Department having 10 fewer seasonal employees than last year she feels volunteering at the parks would be of help. Hansen indicated that any volunteering does make a difference and there have been indications at the parks that there is fewer staff. ADJOURNMENT Evans adjourned the meeting at 7:15 p.m. ______________________________ Deanna Saefke, Recreation Clerk Typist II