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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/15/1997 CITY OF APPLE VALLEY PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE APRIL 15, 1997 Minutes of the Apple Valley Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee held April 15, 1997 PRESENT: Chairperson, Greg Kopischke; Committee Members Royal Bakke, Charlie Maus, Tina Rankin (arrived at 7 p.m.), John DiRico, Russ DeFauw, Andy Gustafson; Park and Recreation Director Randy Johnson, Park Maintenance Superintendent Tom Adamini; Recreation Supervisor Sandy Wagner, Recreation Specialist Bridget Samson; People for Parks Volunteers Dennis Anderson, Scott Gedlinske, Barbara Iantosca; Visiting Public Jay and Ericka Davis (arrived at 7 p.m. for public meeting). ABSENT: None ITEM #1: Chairperson Greg Kopischke called the meeting to order at 6:40 p.m. ITEM #2: Approval of Agenda MOTION: Randy Johnson added a topic to item #6- OTHER - Charlie Maus’ 10 year award on April 24 at City Hall at 7:30 p.m. ITEM #3: Approval of the March 1997 minutes MOTION: by Russ DeFauw, seconded by Charlie Maus to approve the minutes presented VOTE: YES - 6, No - 0 ITEM #4: New Business: A) Dakota County Park Information Meeting - May 7th: Greg Kopischke and John DiRico will attend the meeting B) Cooperative Public Service Award: Randy Johnson will accept the award given by the State for joint project of the Eastview High School and Central Athletic Complex. There were about 110 applications with 10 winners. Randy will attend the ceremony at the HHH Institute on April 30th from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. ITEM #5: Old Business - continued discussion of park bond issue topics Discussion as to where we are heading with project and efforts so far. Randy commented that the following has been done to inform the public of the bond issue. 1) Designed a display board of diagrams and blue prints which has been presented at the VAA registrations. 2) Hand-out of a full sheet flyer “Attention parents of youth athletes” which was distributed at VAA registrations. 3) Established a binder for citizens to be called and reminded to vote on May 20. 4) Designed a 1/2 sheet flyer explaining the improvements and how much it will cost a taxpayer based on home value. This will be handed out to all our adult recreation leagues and general public. 5) Constructed a 3-fold glossy brochure to be handed out to target market. Approximately 3,000 will be printed. 6) Coaches packet with cover letter to the VAA coaches. It will contain the glossy brochure and 1/2 sheet flyers that coaches can hand out to their kids to take home with them. Randy mentioned that we will need a mailing list from the two associations for all 55124 residents. Scott Gedlinske plans to send out flyers for the VAA also. Dennis Anderson he handed out flyers at the baseball tryouts. Todd Bichsel handed out flyers at the managers meeting and also Laurie Riley, who heads up the ladies softball. Randy has in the works of speaking at the City Maintenance meeting and letting them know what the bond entails. He will also speak with Eastview High School parents at a meeting on Saturday, May 4, 1997 and will also speak at our Adult Softball League Managers Meeting on April 16, 1997 at the Community Center. There is a possibility that Randy may talk with the Apple Valley High School Student Council which Andy Gustafson is working on setting up. Another possibility is speaking with the Optimist Club in the future. Discussion was held regarding the response of the public on the bond issue. Randy mentioned that he got many positive calls and only two negative calls. One call was from a citizen worried about their taxes. The second call was from a Burnsville citizen requesting a 50 meter pool be put in. Consensus from members was that the bond referendum is a quiet issue. Royal got feedback from the senior citizens and they were basically worried about their taxes. Russ DeFauw questioned if the cemetery issue was a negative part of it. Sandy Wagner suggested writing letters to the newspapers to make public more aware of bond issue. Randy asked for suggestions to this idea. Greg Kopischke thinks this is a pro-active idea. Dennis Anderson feels the more non-targeted people we contact the worse off we will be. Russ DeFauw commented that there are no major issues at the School District level and feels that we should leave well enough alone. We should wait till we get more negative letters and then respond to them. Tom Adamini has not heard any negative comments. His gut feeling is that 75% of it means something to someone. Members came up with a few questions regarding the bond issue. Dennis Anderson asked if the park bond and the cemetery issue will be presented as two questions? (answer = yes). Barbara Iantosca asked if the cemetery bond covers 20 years of up-keep and maintenance? (answer = no, believe they are planning to get maintenance and up-keep moneys through the sale of lots. Randy was presented with many questions from the public as to why we are not building an indoor pool? (answer = it doubles the price of being built and Burnsville YMCA is coming on- line in one year). Plans are being made for a VICTORY PARTY on May 20th. It will be held at Redwood Community Center at 8:05 (right after poles close). A memo will be sent out with further information. Discussion was held as to suggestions for the next meeting. Randy suggested we have a Public Informational meeting on a Saturday. The first Saturday in May was mentioned. Charlie Maus also suggested we have it at Redwood so people can view the Redwood Pool size. A suggestion to have the meeting at 11:00 was mentioned. More details will follow on this meeting. A flyer, sign-up sheet was sent around the room for members wanting to purchase a T-shirt with the logo “I Support the Park Bond Referendum”, vote on May 20th. The cost of the T-shirt is $5.00. Issues of where the Maintenance Department is heading and if they were on-line for this bond issue. Tom Adamini commented that this is his largest April staff he can recall. He has 9 people working on fields as of today. Comments were made about the golf course and concerns of how it survived the winter. Randy commented that the turf came out of the winter very well and with little snow mold. 7:00 PUBLIC INFORMATIONAL MEETING : 2 public residents attended - Jay and Ericka Davis Mr. Davis had the following comments: Feels that the bond referendum is a quiet issue. He had to call City Hall to get any facts and what is happening. Mr. and Mrs. Davis are all for the pool being built but has questions about the field complex and feels its a lot of money. As for the Teen Center, Mr. Davis feels kids need a place to hang out. He asked about the City Ordinance against kids hanging out at Time Square. Randy let him know that yes, there is an Ordinance against it and it mainly came from concerned businesses. Mr. Davis’ comments to the Playground equipment was as follows: 1) Don’t seem to get a lot for your money. 2) Wood structures seem bigger and to have more activity. Randy explained the handicap accessibility and liability issues. Also explained the cost ($25,000 - $50,000) per play structure. Mr. Davis commented that he lives near Apple Ponds Park and that it only has half a basketball court and asked why not a full court. Mr. Davis feels very angry and very suspicious about this bond referendum. He feels it is a lot of money and that the City if just sliding it through. Greg Kopischke commented that a lot of effort and timing goes into putting this bond issue into effect. Todd Bischel asked Mr. Davis how he felt about VAA using Apple Ponds park for baseball games and if he had any concerns about noise or parking? Mr. Davis thinks its great and no problems about noise or parking. Mr. Davis was unaware of citizens of Mr. Davis’ neighborhood going to City Council and restricting organized sports to three times a week. Charlie Maus suggested that we have more pictures available of the bond issues. Mrs. Davis asked the question, “when will it all be completed?” Randy commented that it would be a three-year time frame to complete everything. June 15 is when the school takes possession of their building and nothing can be done to the field complex until after that date. As far as play structures and asphalt trails, they can be started on right away. More discussion regarding the cost of everything. Tina Rankin tried to explain that we were trying to get additional land for past ten years and the price has been out of our reach. By going in half with the school district it seems the appropriate and cost-effective way to go. Tom Adamini stated that the school district feels that the City is the expert on landscaping and that they are fully in support of having the City do the landscaping and splitting the cost 50/50. Mrs. Davis commented that she works at Eagan High School and she was the only one out of eight employees that knew or heard anything about the bond referendum. She and her husband stated that they got their first initial information about the bond referendum from the Government Channel 21. Jay and Ericka Davis left their names and address so that we may send them any information we develop on the bond issue. ITEM #6: OTHER: A) Annual Committee photo for brochure was taken before the meeting started B) Randy Johnson added that Charlie Maus will receive his 10 year award on April 24 at City Hall at 7:30 p.m. ITEM #7: ADJOURN: There being no further business, the Park and Recreation Advisory Committee meeting was adjourned. MOTION: by Greg Kopischke, seconded by Royal Bakke to adjourn the meeting at 7:50 p.m. VOTE: Yes = 7 No = 0