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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAugust 24, 2016 minutes Park & Recreation Commission Minutes of the Meeting Keyes Park August 24, 2016 David Payne called the meeting to order at 5:32 p.m. Roll Call Members present: Sean Clerkin, Bruce Evans, Tom Greenhalgh, Kevin McDonald, David Payne, Marsha Stroik Staff present: Kevin Hansen, Public Works Director; Keith Windschitl, Recreation Director; Deanna Saefke, Commission Secretary; Gary Peterson, Mayor Approval Consent Agenda Motion by Stroik, second by Clerkin, to approve the consent agenda. Upon vote: All ayes. Motion Carried. Stroik asked what the line item on the bills is for credit card fees. Windschitl replied it is for the percentage service fee for using credit card transaction services. He indicated that fee has increased over the years. Payne asked if there is a $5000 coffee pot at Murzyn Hall. Windschitl replied the new coffee maker in the kitchen of Murzyn Hall cost $2300 and there were installation costs for the electrician and the plumber. Payne said he was inquiring about the $335 charge for fixing the coffee pot. Windschitl replied an electrician is needed for that hook up. A plumber was contracted to install a filter on the water line. With the old pipes in the building the last coffee maker broke down due to all of the mineral deposits and corrosion over time. The prior coffee pot was being brewed two times just to get enough water through for one side. This is the first coffee maker that has been purchased in the past 20 years. He indicated this is used weekly for various events. Clerkin asked about the line items for IS Internal Services and Building Maintenance Allocation. Windschitl replied the IS services is the IT staff for computer services at an annual cost assessed back based on the number of users in each department. Clerkin replied that is it the government money shifting around to the respective departments. Windschitl replied yes, the Finance Department wanted to see that allocation happen years ago. The work for maintaining vehicles is also listed. The IS computer service is one of the main increases in the budget for 2017. The maintenance service is for the usage of the maintenance supervisor position according to where he spends his time at each department or building. Letters and Requests A. Letter of request for a reduced rental rate of Murzyn Hall on Sunday, June 4, 2017 by The Building Blocks of Islam to host a fundraising dinner. Stroik indicated the Ramadan dinners do not start until after sun down and go later in the evening. Payne replied that we have a 1:00 a.m. ending rental time. Saefke replied the person submitting the request knows that they need to be cleaned up and out of the building by 1:00 a.m. McDonald asked if this group would already receive a 25% discount being located in Columbia Heights. Windschitl replied th yes they are in the building with ARAHA on 39 Avenue and would get a 25% discount off of the rental City of Columbia Heights August 24, 2016 Park & Recreation Commission Minutes of the Meeting Page 2 rate. The group is asking for a non-profit rate of a $50 entry fee and $20 per hour of building use. This rate is given for rentals on Sunday through Friday but not typically on Saturday. The cost is to cover staff and building operations. Staff is in favor of the request as this group has rented in the past and been good to work with. Evans asked how many non-profit rentals there has been this year. Windschitl replied this is in the annual report but does not know at the moment. There are a few different groups and staff does bring the requests to the Commission. Clerkin suggested the possibility of increasing the nonprofit rate as well in the future. Motion by Evans, second by McDonald, to approve the request for a reduced rental fee on June 4, 2017. Upon vote: All ayes. Motion Carried. B. Letter of request for an open bar at a wedding reception on September 23, 2106 with approximately 150-170 guests. Windschitl indicated he spoke to the bartender whose certificate was attached in the agenda. She does bartend for a living and is currently working in Chicago. Clerkin stated that the insurance companies honor these types of online certificates. Windschitl had a lengthy conversation with her and feels that in this scenario it all checks out to be responsible. Stroik asked if it is difficult to find staff on Sunday evenings. Windschitl replied no. Motion by McDonald, second by Clerkin, to approve the request for an open bar on September 23, 2016. Upon vote: All ayes. Motion Carried. C. Request for the rental fee of Murzyn Hall to be waived for the City of Peace Banquet on Sunday, September 11, 2016. Peterson asked for the rental fee to be waived for the use of Murzyn Hall for the City of Peace awards banquet. He indicated this is the first year that there has been a stand-alone banquet for the awards. Payne asked if this is the third annual awards ceremony. Peterson replied in the past the awards were handed out at the Prayer Breakfast and another event the year prior. The event will begin at 5:30 p.m. and end at 8:00 p.m. Awards will be presented to three organizations and one city. Motion by Clerkin, second by, to waive the fee for the City of Pease Banquet on Sunday, September 11, 2016. Upon vote: All ayes. Motion Carried. Old Business A. Keyes Park update Hansen reported the Master Plan has been approved by the City Council. Staff has made a request in the 2017 budget to begin work at the park. Revenue will be less than in years past. The architects estimate was about $800,000 for the total work. Hansen believes the estimate is a little higher than it will actually cost. The current revenue available is $350,000. Majority of master park plans have been completed within a cost of $400,000 to $500,000. Greenhalgh asked if there is grant money available. Hansen replied there is grant funding for other types of parks improvements but not for local parks. In the past grant money has been used for playground equipment which has come directly through the manufacturers. Clerkin verified that a partial redo would happen in 2017 completing any work that can be afforded within the budget. Hansen replied that has been the philosophy during all park redevelopments with completing work in-house and consolidate to find ways to pay for the projects. Payne asked if a lot of work can be completed in-house for Keyes Park. Hansen replied not for this park. Staff can assemble and do the work for the playground but not any grading within the park. Some of the trail work may also be done by city staff. City of Columbia Heights August 24, 2016 Park & Recreation Commission Minutes of the Meeting Page 3 B. Circle Terrace Park update Hansen distributed the two renderings of the Circle Terrace Park play area. The building on the north side will be developed separately. The current area of discussion includes the sport court, playset, and the retaining wall overlook area. Most of this work is being done by city staff in 2016. The City Council approved the order of the playset at approximately $27,000, which staff will install. The sport court will be built in-house but the surfacing design will be contracted out. It was budgeted for $40,000 this year for the work to be done. The sport court will have a basketball shooting circle, hopscotch, four square, and a couple of other games. Hansen displayed examples of playset colors for the Commission to choose. Other swings installed in the parks have been the dark red color. Stroik prefers the darker green as shown in the example. Windschitl invited the Commission to the police community eat and greet picnic at Circle Terrace on Tuesday, August 30. Motion by Clerkin, second by Stroik, to recommend the forest color pallet for the playset. Upon vote: All ayes. Motion Carried. C. Huset Park Splash Pad update Hansen stated the splash pad is getting a tremendous amount of use. He feels that of all the projects this Commission has done this is the most successful. There have been problems with the controller going in and out. The manufacturer feels that there is a loose connection in the control board. They are now shipping out new control boards which will go in on August 31. Clerkin asked if that is under th warranty. Hansen replied yes. Due to that install we will keep the splash pad open until September 15. The wading pools will close after Labor Day weekend but the splash pad will remain open in order to run the new control boards. The second item regarding the splash pad is due to the popularity the water consumption is higher than anticipated. Staff has monitored daily use and recommends changing the hours of operation from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., instead of the current closing time of 8:00 p.m. The observations have many people using it right away at 10:00 a.m. with families and young children. In the evening there are older kids with some rougher behavior/language. This will have one hour less of water usage. Members agree with a 7:00 p.m. closing time. Hansen replied staff will monitor the area with the time change for the remainder of the season. Windschitl asked if the zones could be controlled so that not all of them are running at the same time to also save water consumption. Hansen replied yes that is possible. Windschitl asked how long the warranty is for each part. Hansen replied two to three years on the components, the boards are five years, and the electronics at one year, he believes. He indicated what Windschitl was talking about is that there are two areas of the splash pad, one for smaller kids and the larger area for older kids. There are sixteen sequences that the system can run on that will cycle. You will not see everything come on at the same time, or all of the time, but most of the water features will come on together. When the button is pushed a set of features will run for 4 minutes and then shut off, the next time the button is pushed a different set of features will turn on. He agrees that there are too many features turning on at one time. Staff recommends having less features turn on at one time. Payne asked if city staff is able to change the programming. Hansen replied yes. Payne suggests for Staff to change the sequence. Hansen indicated one of the biggest complaints received is people bringing dogs into the splash pad area. Staff will post the updated hours and rule for no animals. Stroik asked if the hours are posted in the Heights Happenings city newsletter. Saefke replied the hours are posted on the City website and it will be posted in the newsletter next year. Windschitl indicated the smoking policy sign also needs to be posted. Motion by Greenhalgh, second by Evans, to change the hours of operation of the splash pad to 10:00 a.m. closing at 7:00 p.m., to change the sequence of features that turn on, and to have Staff monitor the City of Columbia Heights August 24, 2016 Park & Recreation Commission Minutes of the Meeting Page 4 use of the splash pad with these changes. Upon vote: All ayes. Motion Carried. New Business None at this time. Reports A.Recreation Director Windschitl reported the summer recreation programs were great, participant numbers were good, staff did a great job with the program, Loaves and Fishes provided free lunches to all youth programs for the nine weeks of programming. There were a lot of volunteers who helped with the preparation of the lunches, serving to the kids, and cleaning up afterwards. This was a really beneficial program for kids that do not have a lot of food at home, and it gave many kids the opportunity to try new foods that were healthy and nutritious. Even if kids didn’t eat everything on their plate and meal was provided to them. Windschitl stated fall recreations programs have started, specifically youth fall co-ed soccer for grades rdth 3 – 6, youth football, men’s fall softball, co-ed adult softball is continuing from the summer league. The Hylander Center gym floors were redone. This is done annually. The gym gets a lot of use especially in the evenings. On any given Wednesday night there could be 70-80 people there. Windschitl stated the position is open for an after-school open gym supervisor at the Hylander Center on Mondays and Wednesdays. Clerkin asked what ages are using the gym. Windschitl replied Mondays for Columbia Academy that can be 20-40 kids, Thursdays is for Columbia Heights High School and can be up to 70 kids or more. It has been a busy offering, but has run very smoothly. The Police Department does the same type of offering on Tuesdays and has had more behavior issues than at the other after school times. There are a lot of kids using the open gym time, two staff are on duty, and we have been very fortunate with good students. Stroik asked if the gym is open every day. Windschitl replied yes, it is open every day. The typical schedule is Monday through Friday from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m., some teams might practice in the gym after that time or early in the afternoon, the after school open gym when that begins, there are evening times Monday through Thursday from 6:00 – 8:30 p.m. until basketball or other programs begin that will take precedent. Wednesday night is maintained as open gym for the public. That is a very busy night. Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon and Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The weekend times fluctuate in attendance depending on the season. The Hylander Center is open every day that the school district has a custodian on duty. A custodian is not paid overtime just to have the Hylander Center open so if the school is closed for a holiday or any other reason than the gym is closed. The fee is $1 to get in each time or $10 per month. Stroik asked if the school district uses the city gym do they pay the City. Windschitl replied that happens very rarely because of the daily use of the gym. Once in a while a special situation might arise with a team needing space for a practice and Windschitl will let them use the gym because there might be a time when the city needs an additional gym space too. It is a give and take relationship. There is no fee associated with that use. The only money exchanged is when there is a basketball tournament. Generally speaking the revenue is between $6,000 and $8,000 over the years. The cost to run the facility is less than what was anticipated with the maintenance that the school district covers. Stroik indicated she receives the most questions on how the Hylander Center is being used. The public perception seems to be that it is not a community gym or what they had envisioned. Many wonder how the money is exchanged between the city and the school district. It isn’t open when people think that it should be available. Greenhalgh stated that would have to do with the hours being open and becomes a problem with staff availability. Windschitl replied that also has a lot to do with the custodial schedule at the school and we do not pay overtime to have a custodian just for the Hylander Center. That is why the schedule on Sunday has a unique time frame. Windschitl stated the relationship City of Columbia Heights August 24, 2016 Park & Recreation Commission Minutes of the Meeting Page 5 with the school district is as good as it has ever been and they two entities work well together. If they need to use our gym or we need to use a school gym something is worked out if it is available. Stroik indicated while working the election precinct at Hyland Elementary the topic was brought up regarding moving the precinct to the city gym for air conditioning and better accessible space. Windschitl replied he personally wants to keep the gym floor protected from street shows, the possible weather elements, and keeping tables or other pieces off of the floor that might scratch. He understands why it is an appealing location. It would be up to the City Council to make that decision. B.Public Works Director/City Engineer Hansen reported the seasonal crew was one of the best there has been. Staff was consistent in attendance and worked very hard during their ten to twelve weeks of employment. The seasonal employees will all be finished within the next week or two. C.Commission Members Stroik attended a meeting at Heights Manor and they are concerned with the mounds of dirt near the th dentist office is going in. Hansen replied those are being removed. Stroik indicated the pavement on 39 Avenue and turn on to Stinson Boulevard; the manhole covers have divots prior to the covers that are affecting driving conditions. Hansen replied staff are aware of the conditions and are working on the punch list. Payne asked who is doing the work on Jefferson Street. Hansen replied Midwest Asphalt. They had a subcontractor out for two weeks and they had until Friday to show up on the job and will be back tomorrow. Stroik asked for the latest update on the Hy-Vee project. Peterson replied it is moving ahead as fast as budgets do. Peterson invited the members to attend the City of Peace Banquet on Sunday, September 11. The cost is $20 per person for dinner. Payne adjourned the meeting at 6:40 p.m. _________________________________ Deanna Saefke, Recreation Clerk Typist II