all righty it is 4 p.m and we will call the Tuesday April 22nd Park Board to order and we'll start with roll call miller yes sandy present schaefer yes shape here burns pledge of allegiance
i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and we'll move on to the approval of the
agenda motion to approve we have a motion second and a second any discussion on the agenda hearing none all in favor say I i all oppose same sign we have an approved
agenda moving on to the consent calendar notice of the public all matters listed are considered routine by the board and will be enacted by one motion there will be no separate discussion of these items unless good cause is shown prior to the time the board votes on the motion to be adopted by roll call any discussion on
the consent calendar um I did have some questions about a couple of three of the permits that we're in so I don't know do we pull those out yeah pull them out for separate discussion so like just those three i don't know if anyone else had questions on any of those
permits special permits had a process question okay which maybe goes with the permits for maybe goes elsewhere uh okay what do we what do we want to pull up
um I had a question on letter D or I'm sorry E so blade and then the one about the two paddles so F
and then J okay andrew um it would be D okay oh maybe dng dng okay all righty so um I'm ready to make a
motion okay let's I'll make a motion to approve the consent calendar pulling out the items for more discussion uh consisting of letters D E F G and J very good i'll second that motion and a
second on the amended consent calendar any further discussion on the consent calendar and its amendment all right please call the role miller yes sandy yes schaefer yes shape yes burns very
good we have a consent calendar amended uh we'll move on to 6A then or do we have to do those polls yeah okay we do have to pull do the pull out so we'll move on to then the uh approval of the Brainer Night Out 2025 so we'll just do it in order
thank you Mr president uh Brainard um night out i spoke to this gentleman and very excited about uh moving forward with this project he's working with um the police chief the police chief is going to be providing some pizza there might be a dunk tank um but they're
working on that and uh no he's just super excited to bring something to um this is going to be at Memorial Park correct lisa do I have that gregory gregory oh
okay all right i thought it was at Memorial so this is with the Brainard um North Association oh okay i'm thinking of a different night out Yep okay that's Blade right so yes this one I Sorry I apologize i confused the two different
events and is there anything specifically that the board is looking at um questionwise my question on this one was when someone wants to use a park when are we having them fill out the
special event application versus our facility reservation form so that's something I know Tonyy's looking into as well because essentially it's filling out the same thing so what we have civic wreck now is asking all the questions
for it and you can reserve online um instead of calling um so it's something that she was looking at to kind of take out of of the special events uh for for park usage because all the questions are
in civic wreck and we can formulate questions specifically to ask more uh questions essentially uh that that would coincide with the special event application it's pretty much the same just a couple different questions here and there
yeah I know we've put some limitations and terms in civic wreck about facility use or right don't drive in the park things like that and so I want to make sure that this and I think two of the yoga events later on right are getting
that same information so that if something comes up we were confident that they were presented with that before they held the event and not like oh you did this thing that isn't allowed but we didn't tell you it wasn't allowed like that stinks right right and that's the kind of thing you know because I
I've been kind of catching some things along the way of where they're not filling out an event application form and not talking with us so I'm looking at the schedule ahead of time uh trying to see if there's catching anyone's like there's a a run this in a couple
weekends um but it won't affect anything with with parks it's very small um so I guess it's kind of when do you I mean do we want the applications do we not want the applications that's a good question yeah yeah i think the qu the the applications are great i
think when we when we do our workshop I'm going to give you a list of things that that I would like to focus on and whatever you'd like me to focus on I'm happy to do so but our process to complete these things it's sort of like
there's not a strong process as far as policies and procedures and that's one thing that Lisa is really streamlining um we sort of started with engineering about you know policies and procedures and how we literally do things and this
is one of those things that how do we literally do it and to make sure that everything is communicated effectively so that we don't overbook a park and so forth so there are some things that we do need to sort of tighten up and that
policies and procedures will drive that force to ensure nothing gets overlooked and that we are asking the right questions um yeah um cuz these are some big events that are being booked
um maybe as a part of that process when we're looking at this I thought there was either at the park board level or both park board and city council previous to your time Mike there was some discussion about what which events need special event applications and
which ones do not right and I think the decision at that time was the event application for larger events that maybe utilize more than just a facility um at a park and there you're going to have you know there might have been a limit like threshold on number of people that
was set at that time so it's probably something in the minutes okay you're going to have to look up but I know this was a previous discussion at some point about and it was an opportunity for people to advertise their specific events and that's kind of where it landed on is that it was kind of at
staff's discretion at that point and whether they thought that that type of event warrants a event application rather than just a a reservation at a specific facility sure and and I think too I mean as far as like what Andrew is discussing as well
like the park specific things um you know again Gregory's just the best example of this like no vehicle usage and things like that just to make sure that the the rules that we've kind of set forth for each individual park are relayed in some way to these folks so that the expectations are set so when
they do it we can be like "Hey we don't know how to do this." Um instead of just you know oh we didn't know or something like that along the lines of the application so I think that sort of thing being fleshed out and making sure again when we have these cuz again based on the permit or the way that was
applied for previously they they may have known um but uh you know they fill out the application it gets approved and they can just maybe feel like they can do whatever they want um you know regardless so um I think that's really the the communication we want to make sure whether it was through the
application process before or now afterward um when we're getting a hold of these people to let them know that their application is approved right yeah and I think this one's a great example because they do want to shut down a street so you need more than Right park can't shut a street down
right so we need police and other folks involved but also want to make sure the park is sort of reserved for them have somebody try to run a pickle ball tournament or something at the same time just you know we also are going to be communicating with them saying "Hey if you want the pavilion you need to
reserve it." Like the Halloween event I forget who was going to reserve that pavilion um but we will be reminding them and hopefully they get in and reserve that pavilion because that sort of locks in their that pavilion um cuz
on here on the application that's one of the application flaws is that do you want a pavilion did you pay for the pavilion you know there's all these check boxes if it's not checked now we can say "Yep they didn't pay for it we need to call them and do this." So just the form itself needs to be as we
champion this we will find those things right now we have just uh we're getting ready for summer and all of our activities and stuff but that's definitely one thing that I want to put on the list as far as you know champion that in between Tony and I we do
communicate she puts whatever needs to be approved from council on council and then also if it's park included we put it on parks awesome good on that one all right so I I'll make a motion to approve uh the brainer
night out 2025 for the north side association motion and a second on the permit any discussion further hearing none all in favor say I i all post same sign uh they are approved to do the thing uh we'll move on to the approval
of the Blade Coalition nonprofit with DJ food trucks tents and banners at Kiwanas yes so my only thing with this I love this event we actually go to this event as for my work and I totally support it it's just that um they put in for three years of reservations and I didn't I
don't know I didn't know if we could do that or not not that I'm not going to approve it for the next two years but I think it maybe should just be like a one year per time and then she can put it in again i don't know if you guys saw that but what are your thoughts on that i'm with you um I like I like the idea of all
right well let's lock it in it's a great event that sort of thing but you know we have been especially with some other uh permits maybe maybe permits that were a little more on the fringe um but we've we've limited them to to one year and and making them renew every year and
have conversation with us so Mike yes thank you Mr president yeah I 100% agree sometimes I don't even see these and again that's part of the process i don't even sometimes see these um and so yeah we won't be we'll just be approving if
that's okay with you just the 25 cuz again they have to reserve that pavilion we can't go into 26 27 and reserve that pavilion so we don't want to approve this and not approve the pavilion so we'll So yes if you would please that
would be great and then Lisa has one more comment and underneath it does state one application submittal per year so they might not have seen that and I can discuss that with them when I give them a call tomorrow some historical
context related to this topic this was set up this way with that checkbox for the farmers market specifically downtown and that was a recurring event every week and so we didn't want them coming in with an application for a re so that's why that recurring event checkbox
got put into place and probably a recurring event I think if we were going to try to be more specific then we'll just say okay yeah if it's you know recurring event in the same in the yeah in the same cadence yeah I mean you know not not annually you need to have a new application every month So um so I can
make a motion to approve blade um for September 18th of 2025 second motion and a second on the singular date approval andrew I have a just question i wonder are they maybe putting those dates in there to have
some certainty for sponsors and things and is there a way we could try to give them that certainty but still have them come back to us right like if you want to secure a sponsor and say "Hey you're going to be our featured sponsor for the next three years." I want to help them
accomplish that but I think we also do want to see an an application come back each year like is there a way we could pencil them in yeah yeah like hold it for them but say "Hey you still need to apply." So we can give them that certainty but yeah right so thank you um
at and with our calendars we can just do that lisa can put that on our calendar january 1 reach out to these individuals and for the Quanas and make sure that they do get that we give them that first right of of refusal and that would be a
good clause to have in there outstanding yeah I like that a ton great question any further discussion on the approval of this year's permit hearing none all in favor say I i i all oppose same sign uh we're approved for
this year and we'll pencil in for the next two um moving on to the approval of the two paddles Mississippi River 145 canoe and kayak race that was also mine um so my first thing was actually what Andrew had said about the pavilion thing
so like maybe his his special events should have just been a pavilion rental but we already covered that my second part would be um from his photo that he shared it looks like he's using the beach but I'm not sure and like how long will he be using the beach now that this beach is going to be fully functioning
for the public with no weeds and you know I like you beat me to it but it does say he's I think 9 to 6 is when he has his pavilion but then he talks about like everyone leaves and
goes at what 9 or 10 but are they coming back to the beach is there going to be items in the way that people can't use the beach just a little bit different than past years since people might actually be using the beach right we can reach out to him and indicate that because that is a public beach we can't
close that off and the parking lot won't be his exclusively he will reserve the pavilion that will be his and how they maneuver to the using the dock to start the race that's fine that'd be my only concern if it's just
the time that he's going to be taking over that space pavilion he can have it as long as it's available from 9 to 6 or whatever he needed but that was my only good yeah just checking in on the accommodations that we'll have to make and making sure that he knows that we
don't control the beach right so very good any other discussion on this particular permit i'll make a motion to approve i'll second that motion and a second any discussion on the motion hearing none all in favor say I i
oppose same sign we have approved the two paddles kayak race uh moving on to the approval of yoga in the park at Gregory i think this was mine it was I think just similar of having having the vendor
application and the special event u is there and maybe this gets to your process discussion mike like if somebody wants to do this is it clear to them what they have to fill out or do they have to call you Lisa or Kayla and say "Hey I want to do this thing what forms
do I need?" It kind of goes both ways I guess you could probably say um I know Jessica she's been doing this for the past few years uh from my understanding so she kind of knows the routine of it um so she reached out she already had the
application filled out and then came in and provided her insurance um and then filled out the application so that again like does she need one does she not i mean okay right yeah we'll continue to
work on the process uh any further discussion on the permit all right yeah I think just maybe something for a workshop um I will move to approve the vendor and special event application second motion and a second any further
discussion on the motion hearing none all in favor say I i all oppose same sign we've got yoga um and then approval of the Sethane Sheridan Foundation walk from Gregory to Lum Park
um I guess I just I wanted to know more about this event so it's just this gentleman is walking from one park to the next or I don't know if I missed a page um from 1 to six and he wants the roads closed for
him there's amplified sound and I electrical use to be brutally honest I this is I have not reviewed this uh uh proposal and when you're closing streets just one
street if you just close one street that's a total of about 3 4 hours for one staff person and so it's just hard when we when they want a slew of streets and now I'm going to have one guy dedicated the entire day but again um my
apologies i didn't again I I need to get find time to to review these and to look more closely and to ask these questions right up front is there I haven't even Is there a route in in this
yeah so what we can do what I would like to do is take more time and review this get with that individual talk to them more about their specific route and what streets need to be closed and then I can bring that back either on a special email or even on our workshop night we
could approve this when What's the date on this the 17th yeah it's already coming up may 17th yeah well May 17th that's uh but so at our May 6 workshop that would give them time um just getting a route and so forth
lisa do you have anything to add yeah there's no road closures they're just walking across the road they had talked to me um and I was advised kind of asked them some of these questions um he was I was advised for him to talk to to the police department if they would be able
to have someone present um and I think it kind of depends on the amount of numbers of people um this is an event for um uh addiction um soiety um that kind of thing i don't know how many amount of
people maybe like 50 that would be doing that walk through um and they would be walking across a road and I don't think I think it is the highway the main road if I'm not mistaken um but it sounds like this is an event that um he uh Dave
works with uh a guy that Dave works with that they've had it in the past as well um they've had a special event application filled out last year um and there was no police presence they walked across the road by themselves so no road
closure just walking from one park to the next i know like sometimes when we the city council at least has reviewed these applications the police department does chime in on availability there was another event that some usually annually
takes place it's the walk between St andrews and St francis I believe where um this type of discussion usually comes up about can you guys provide assistance at least crossing 210 because that one becomes they have usually around 100 people so you have um a large presence
so I don't know you know what our say is in that i think this one would probably go to city council just because of the street closure aspect and would be discussed at a city council meeting but if they're not closing the road they it would still if it's using public
rights of way and requesting any type of assistance at crossings I think it would probably be a city council item it's not in a park it's not in a park and that's why that that designation between what we're responsible for and what the city council likes to see come in front of
them i think this is probably one of those i would agree okay so um do we just need to make a motion to move that upstairs then or yeah I mean I think we can make a motion for the use of the parks which is looks like it's going to be pretty minimal looks like they're
just meeting at one place and moving to another absolutely but yeah okay I'll make a motion to approve it under that anticipation i'll second that motion and a second any discussion on the motion
no no very good um all in favor say I i i all oppose same sign and looks like we have gotten all of the permits handled for now uh so we'll move on to presentations um the community education annual spring presentation
good afternoon i'm Anmarie Locker i'm the community ed director and this is Tim S and he coordinates our parks and wreck uh program and I think this is the first time we've done a spring presentation so I came here last fall and kind of shared
last summer what happened with a bunch of numbers and different reports oops excuse me so if you have any follow-up questions from that I do have that information with me here but otherwise we're kind of ramping up for the summer
for all of our community um including parks and wreck um our guide was just mailed to some households raise your hand if you live in the Brainard Park or Brainard School District and got this please
yeah the one that looks like this okay because only about half the people in our office have got it so I'm a little nervous well I thought they were raising their hands back there anyway so um we just got a call today from the post office to come pick them up the extras and we're like um I think you need some of those
still so I got to follow up on that tomorrow but um so we've taken a lot of registrations already um because we advertise some of the parks and wreck things in our um winter guide just cuz they're starting sooner rather than
later um registrations are a little bit less than last year right as of right now but now with this coming out we usually pick up a few more so we're likely to be similarly on track as we were last year still struggling with the
older groups the pony baseball and the fast pitch softball that's 12U because a lot of those kids are going to travel families are choosing to just do travel rather than wreck and travel it's a time
commitment so still struggling with those numbers and I would see that only continuing in the future as people are more busy and there's more options but um I do want to share a story um actually one of my colleagues is um had
a 13-year-old boy last summer who really loves baseball all his friends play baseball he did not get chosen for a travel team um and we at the time were talking about having to cancel Pony because we didn't have enough kids
signed up for that to even have two teams to play each other hardly but then we were able to work it out with some surrounding communities when we do Aken Pillager mhm and so we had two teams and then they each had a team and
we asked all the families who had registered if they'd be willing to travel and it ended up working out great well that allowed you know that particular child to keep playing feel good about himself and be happy um and this year he actually did make travel
and so he's thrilled but I'm like well no you're not going to be in our program but you know I think there's a lot of children in that situation or families who are in the situation where they can't afford the time investment to play travel ball or maybe the financial
investment as well and so I feel like you know having a recreation program in our communities is important for those kids so anyway I just wanted to share that with you um we've got our same um baseball and softball coordinator head
coaches on for this summer as well um Kyle's having a parent meeting tonight for parent meetings tonight for the baseball some of the baseball the what Mustang and Bronco yes yeah and then the other ones don't start until a little bit later so and then
um we found someone to do our evening tea ball which was a struggle last year that program didn't go great in the evenings um we have a daytime program as well and the gal who did that and she had a great job last year has agreed to do it all and she's going to recruit
some people to help her with it so she had a really good I mean when you're looking at T-ball for you know four or five year olds it's different it's more the child management than the game but well she had a good she had a good
format where they were you know do their warm-ups exercises then they'd actually work on a skill yeah and then when they were up batting she would have them hit three times before they ran so it brought a lot of structure to it instead of it just being round up your kids so
it was very good so she agreed to do our evening which was for us and then we've also restructured the schedule for the evening one because we have so many kids that participate they were going until kind of late and it's late for those little kids so we're gonna be running
two teams at a time with them getting to rotate who gets the real field and who's out in the practice field which is just a grass field so we're going to try to give everyone a chance to be on a big field but not um have to be there till 8:30 or 8:45 it
went till last year well it'll be more friendly too for working parents cuz it was starting at 4:45 which was just Yeah so now we're shortening that window it'll start a little later and and a little earlier for everybody so that's our plans for this year
um otherwise I don't know if there's anything else any questions you guys have or we do we also have tennis coming up in May and we did um reduce the number of registrations we took for that and I think you had emailed me about that a little bit just because of the tennis court situation so that is full
we have a short waiting list so if we have anyone drop we'll be able to get some more kids in or if something changes with the court's availability then we can add those kids as well so I don't know i think you can open it up you think so yeah open up oh okay so
okay so then we'll probably need to look for a helper as well cuz with the smaller numbers we just going to have one person so that's good to know we're actually meeting with her tomorrow yeah oh did she confirm perfect okay good and then um Miracle League we've got her
coming back um Sam Wland sam sorry yeah she's fantastic she runs a great program yeah so we're grateful to her so very good any questions any questions um so are you guys close with like the coaches for the traveling team so like
if they have to cut a child could you be like "Hey but there's this great opportunity to like still play but be I don't know if that's like a thing." Yeah we we we communicate enough with them because especially through our facility use through the school district that we
could get that we could and you know up until last year they required kids to do both anyways so they were a lot more you know like trying to support our program and make sure that we had enough kids
participating but then I think they just got push back from parents that was too much because they'd be every night of the week they'd either playing wreck ball or the travel but it would be a good thing to reach out to the the association and just be like you know please encourage kids to to take
advantage of this opportunity i think most kids are are aware of it so but but it' be a good message because it you don't want to lose a kid or have them lose confidence because they didn't make travel for example when they have our option that keeps them involved so that one guy could be like the spokesperson you know like I did wreck one year and
then I made travel so hey everyone I don't know maybe you know positive yeah I guess for like marketing yeah the rebranding of it as kind of a farm system I guess for the travel league but I mean it you know kind of a bummer I guess in that sense cuz going back to when I was a kid that wasn't the case i
mean we were just packed but right um yeah what if they're out outside playing instead of doing the video game thing or not being involved in something right that's a big deal so okay great thank you let me know if you have any follow-up questions or anything and and
if you get your guide Yeah I'll let you know thank you um we will move on to 7A unfinished business the approval of the banner quotes yes thank you Mr president and in my
email that I sent that sort of broke out what is a firm standardized process which was the size of the banner and a logo and then there's other variables that they could have their own
creativity this you know the font the color and those that way when we look if you just envision the softball field and it be placed with banners all the way through there that they don't all look
100% identical and you get lost in in that so there will be some uniqueness and and I think that will have a good visual effect when you're standing at in the dugout or whatever um so that's why that distinction that as we talked we're
like yeah we need to have a little creativity for some you know uh marketers out there yeah we don't want just brown everything or you know want you know green everything yeah whatever it might be you know the the color schemes i did want to share I mean because JD did uh leave some notes on
this so um in case you didn't get to read his um his input just to get it out of the way here so um he said the easiest and cleanest method in my eyes is Minnesota TE's design is included and makes it easiest to sell to a client the difference in design fee will raise any others above the price of Minnesota TE's
it's also a business located within the city of Brainard and uh supporting uh local businesses is a priority to him so just wanted to share his input um what uh what comments questions or concerns do you guys have for staff
yes i just want to confirm here so the total cost for one banner is $150 that's no matter who we go with is that what I'm understanding plus So it's $150 plus the banner so whatever cost that if they get a
small banner you know a 4x8 or 4x6 versus a 4x4 those there's different costs with that so it' be 150 plus the cost of the banner okay that it any other questions for staff
one other and when we look at these forms it will be nice that this is a yearly cost at the end of the year they either pick up their banner or we remove it and we they could keep it and then
bring it back to us and say okay here's my banner $150 and now they're ready to go um we it and if the board would like us to be the storing house of that we we can it just leaves
some if we misplace it then it's on us i would rather that we just give it back to them but whatever the board would like we would follow i think that also giving it back to them also allows them to see the quality at end of season as well so I uh you know
not that I think we do a bad job storing them but then we pull them out at the end start of next year and we go "Hey these are actually kind of crummy you got to replace them right uh leaves a little bit of a bad taste." But I do think the logistics of having everyone come to pick up their banners every season also is kind of funky so I guess
I'm kind of torn between that um because I you know I I don't even know what kind of process you put together to have everyone come and get their stuff so Right and that would be on the review and the recommendation of our
forms down the road sure not here just wanted to throw that out there that we could clean up our form regarding the process so that we don't have uh that example we do have this example um on my desk i indicated to them that you know
sorry but we're not going to replace your banner um and it's on the form itself that if it's damaged or whatnot it's on the customer and so I just want to Sure um at the end of the season I want people to know that but anyway that will be a later discussion sure so for
right now this is the process that we have so I'm on board for Minnesota TE's here um I like the cost i like the uh um I like the locality um I I don't mind any of that so my choice is Minnesota TE's here just simply from um the design
standpoint i know they do good work they're the best cost for the people that are trying to do this and uh that's really all I got when I was looking over all of this i mean it's really boils down to um you know the material quality and things
like that i mean it's got to be relatively standardized and I just don't uh if they're going to do the design free of charge it does allow much more creativity because again in my eyes conceptually it's banners based on color
standards and typography and all this other nonsense but you know if they want to go out and get something else designed it's more cost to somebody so then there's more barriers this way um if they have something in mind they can just go to Minnesota Te's not be charged
extra and then have the thing printed so that's what it is for me i mean I know a lot of these other places do the similar offerings but um Tease is coming in the lowest so and then of course we can always change that if it's not what we want in
the future or the quality isn't there whatever it might be so I agree and I I like the idea of having them take their banners at the end of the year yeah I was going to say any any fee for the same for the same reason i this I think it gives them an opportunity to look at
it themselves and say you know not just staff saying your banner's crummy come pick it up and order a new one if you want to do this again it gives them the opportunity to look at and say do we really want to put this back up on a field fence representing our business yeah totally fair very good the flip
side of that if we have the banner is it easy an easier sell to them in the spring say "Hey we've got your banner 150 bucks you don't have to do anything." Another upsell you get another advertising suggestive selling yeah i
the whole like storing thing i see that but yeah i mean space like 50 rolled up banners if we had 50 i guess I don't know if like mice get in or like into any of those spots and are
mice like getting into any of the sheds right now the we don't have a very specific location to store these banners but again that I would like to have as a separate discussion down the road and uh yeah I think let's just explore the logistics of that just so that you're
not maybe taking a ton of labor time I mean if you know we're spending a lot of effort giving these banners back every season maybe we just hold on to them but yeah I think te's for me and then let's talk about what it's going to cost us to get it back to everyone every year and the logistics of
I was just thinking first impressions because they're they're actually less money but they do have the design fee now are we assuming that everyone is going to need a design because I know we joked and said you can't you know not
everyone has a design person on staff but what if they do i mean I don't know if they already have banners then technically First Impression also is just down the street they're local and but um I don't know what kind of banners normally you know I don't know what they
look like or what we have people have on staff i do like the option you know and I again personal anecdote I deal with first impressions as my printing solution all the time so I won't you know um but yeah for me as a like um I a
lot of people will be able to just throw something on a white background you know and be able to throw their logo on top of it i think if this way it's just done right like we they can send us your assets and we'll just we'll make it work type of thing with the tease side of
things whereas you know okay well it'll be cheaper for them to go to first impressions but then you know if they need to do some sort of design work or we don't want it to turn out crummy as well and I think that was kind of the goal with this was that to have some place that people can go to where you
know again everybody has a their own design and their own company and they want to express their creativity in a certain way but we have somebody that can drain it in and it's to lower cost to everyone who comes in um to do this so I think yeah without the design
correct yeah first impressions would be the best savings and again love the company to death but I think I prefer TE's simply because with the design element to it they're the lowest and we can just kind of standardize that they're going to need some form of
design work regardless of how good you are i you know I you know I that's a good point i use a you know we got a lot of Canva experts in the area I imagine but um you know when it's going onto a banner or something 4 by8 like that I I still think you know making sure that
these guys are taken care of for for doing that work and adjusting all these banners because a lot of times they'll do that work for free just to just to fix a particular design um to get it on there so I I'm still with TE's simply because I I want that I want them to be
paid for their time when they're fixing the designs not just fully doing the designs as well so I love your first impressions but I really do but I'm going to make a motion to approve the quote from Minnesota TE's second that and then my
only discussion is again I I don't know if we talk terms or anything like that with these folks let's just do it for a season come back figure out what the quality looks like have a conversation about those things if you guys feel like we need to try something else if it just
didn't come out right let us know and we can have another conversation about it next year any further discussion hearing none all in favor of approving Minnesota TE's as our banner vendor say I i all oppose same
sign minnesota TE's we have banners very good uh new business the discussion of credit card processing for the concession stands yes we staff looked at this process and with the civic wreck and with our ID department it's uh
pretty extensive on all the different fees to the processing fee $460 for the readers $120 for every device per year it there's there's a list of fees associated with this i thought it would
be a it was I thought it was a good idea but when we really look at the minutiae of it it there's a lot of fees associated with this and and even with a small purchase we still have to add what was it like 198
198 uh per purchase for some reason so um I think uh our recommendation is just to remove to continue doing what we did last year still accepting cash and moving forward in that manner if the
board would so choose yeah I think my comment on this was with the cash um historically speaking it just felt like maybe the bag was a little light at the end of the uh the evening so I mean if we can just keep a better grasp on shrinkage um you know I understand it's
probably not efficient to count every last sucker in the bag but you know I just feel like we had all this inventory and I know a lot of it expired etc etc but I mean just keeping a grasp on that we're not actually just losing cash to I
don't I you know hate to be it but theft um right and um again I have no issue with with staying with cash and everything like that it just like I said when we first talked about this it was like "Oh our deposits are nothing." And it's like "Well but we don't even have credit card
machines at that point." So you know we're moving all this product but we're but we're not so uh yeah Mike yeah so we've uh met with staff and we've all discussed this at length and again policies and procedures are going to
really tighten this up and reviewing those policies and procedures with our staff that are out there and having cross checks and balances is going to see staff will see our checks and balances and realize this is a business
and uh it needs to be held and conducted as such i think just those little tweaks right there plus also we went from 200 items down to about 20 and uh so our inventory will
be very focused and very deliberate and our uh partnerships there will be a win-win with that coca-cola is helping with our free events having um drink events drink uh beverages there uh
what's that like a table like a table a tent and just helping promote the the event so they're stepping forward and knowing that u they need to step forward also so I think the big thing is just our standard operating procedures again we're going to be moving forward with
all of that okay yeah i I appreciate the diligence because I mean we're just hemorrhaging money so um I'm curious now with the 20 items that are on the list how many are actually like under $1 or I mean couldn't we just have everything be
$3 and up yeah I there's we actually looked at that um there's a lot of items that were cheaper at our concession stand than anywhere else in the city um and so we are looking at this literally
as a business and we're not gonna overcharge we can get a menu i don't think it's in the packet correct we can send you the our menu uh we worked with Coca-Cola on standardized pricing so that we just didn't grab a price out of
left field and so these are standardized prices from their perspective i mean they know the market right they know the market they have a lot of items that we It's just not drink products they have a lot of snacks and whatnot and uh so we're leaning on them a little bit to
help us with these standardized prices very good yeah I'm stoked andrew um how many readers do we have uh staff three and are we looking to buy more for this
year no we're going to stick with three back no backup those are kind of backups already yeah I was gonna say we only have really one functioning concession stand as it is right so if you want we could get another backup if you want but I think
we're sufficient where we are oh yeah i was coming at it from the potential costs of the different processor oh like if we wanted to buy another reader that's a significant chunk of change but Right um I think we're we're just sticking I
mean yeah just for clarity sake we are doing the current fee structure we're we're continuing that right and we're not moving on to the potential new fee structure we're not exploring that any further potential fee structure so you have at the top the new fee structure would be and then you have all those
transaction fees we're are we sticking with the the current fee structure then at the bottom or are we trying to move on to Can you pull that up Lori no talking about Yeah on this uh on this handout yep yeah because I think that's to Andrew's
point here um I think it means that we already have the readers were approximately 155 so the three readers we do currently own were 155 bucks okay those are the three in our possession yeah cuz Yeah because the the summary at the top is we we it can be switched to
in-house um so we're currently at the bottom and we're exploring the top or are we Well we can I know obviously at this point I mean we concessions open on May 6 so trying to get something right no I just was like I said I was trying
to kind of more or less understand the handout like since we're not moving to we're going to continue to utilize cash mhm um kind of figuring out exactly what um like the the breakdown and all that
stuff was for um but that was I I think that's probably part of your question yes because yeah if we were buying more readers than the three that we already had you know be on on top
um of for the second set I guess but so again just to clarify these fees that are outlined here is when we use a credit card that's what we have to charge and that's what we get charged for the service yeah they get whacked
for 2 and a half% minimum of $1.95 right so if and that's what we'll have to do right we a lot of people are going to be well I wouldn't say a lot some people are going to be still be doing cash when we do have a credit card transaction this is the fee that will be associated
with every credit card transaction the current fee structure not the new fee structure correct yes okay yeah and that I think that's just I mean without context kind of looking at it was like okay well 2 and a half% you know is whatever but then if we just move into
any major credit card they're at 3% so I was like I said I was trying to figure out but it wouldn't be a minimum fee of $1.95 it would just be 3% on the new structure okay it's very good yeah i guess my concern is the current fee structure is
essentially so if we have a $5 purchase you have to pay $1.95 in fees and we're taking with the with the potential new fee structure it's about 45 so we're just taking a $1.50 of a
resident's money and funneling it to a third party company yeah right and that feels real bad uh I think that's just it's not a good look for us it's not how most companies in Brainer operate um I realize we're late in the game to like switch this
year but I think it's really worth investigating for Yeah because this is the first year we'll be like fully cooking right with this right with this structure i mean we ran last year but like we're we're definitively we're
we're shaving it down we're optimized we're ready to rock so if we were to run the current free structure this season which I mean we're kind of on pace to do that um we could reassess this and reevaluate next year if the like because I mean the other side of the cost is right so the the readers are 155 a piece
we have three of those right um and so if we're looking at that um at the top like our the cost to us and then maintaining that you know I I guess I'm trying to make sure that our overheads are right I mean I don't want to charge people for
nothing and send it you know to offshore the Cayman Islands but I mean if if it's saving us on overhead I suppose that's probably more important than fees I so last year this is what the fees were the current structure this is
we we paid that and we'll pay that and this year we'll be doing the same thing yep and um so there's really and it's just a matter of doing business with a credit card sure it's just um individuals they don't have cash this is
the fees you know they'll have to do that 2 and a half% uh minimal fee is 195 or 198 um and that's just to do business it is what it is yeah and I just we were just kind of again looking at this this new fee structure um as like a better
service to the community at the actual stand itself so I mean because yeah to Andrew's point if the minimum transaction for all payment meth methods is 30 cents and then 3% of a $5 transaction is only you know 15 cents whatever then they're only paying 45
cents instead of $1.95 on all transactions or on you know again most major credit card companies so I think you know as far as service to the community at the stand um to the summaries point at the top it
is certainly um the fee structure is better um it's just yeah as far as the overhead is concerned um the upfront cost for the new readers is is higher but if we have three already then we're already
spending you know what $460 $465 for the the readers now and then it's is it 460 each for the reader i'm trying like I said I'm trying to understand the structure um on the on the new side okay we we can workshop it
too like that's totally fine right i think Gloria's got Mr chair I interject so we have three readers currently with the processor we use if we switch processors we have to purchase new readers sure so you have obviously that upfront cost it is per reader um we can key in card numbers so there is the
chance we could look at reducing maybe not having one in the office but having them for concession stance um the other part of the fee that um I don't know if it was mentioned out of the sheet with me we currently pay $100 per month to Forte just for um having them as a
processor with Civic Plus that would go away and it would just be the 120 per reader per year so you would have a little difference in that pricing also um again yes you wouldn't have the $1.95 minimum it would be 30 cents minimum on each each transaction the only
difference would be for larger transactions like registrations reservations they'd be paying the 3% versus the two and a half that makes sense so hopefully that kind of that does clear it up a lot for me i I you know again the that free structure is
quite good i I think I mean on the on the civic side of things I guess I'm not sure i mean like I said I'd like to explore this a little bit further if we can continue to get some more detail cuz again the buck 95 for a sucker or whatever it might be you know I mean like slapping the want to run it like a
business i'm with you 100% but we do need to still service the public and I you know I me personally I don't carry cash to the ball fields ever so that's kind of one of those things where I'd like to you know even for my
own benefit uh not have to pay two bucks to to buy a soda on a credit card so cuz then then it turns from competitive rates to really not competitive right like we're going out and having Viking or Viking Viking Viking Coke do all this work and we know what MSRP is and what
the market rate is and then we're charging an extra two bucks on top for that transaction it kind of bulls that sort of and again I it's a delicate dance between business and service but um you know uh I I would like to explore that fe structure further do we own the
the readers we currently use or are they leased no we own them okay so we would be throwing those into the the trash can correct okay gotcha okay very good yeah i' I'd just like to explore that a little further but um yeah can could that be for next year
yeah yeah we don't need to do a swap on it right now i mean it's again we're gathering more data on actual how much how much we're using and we're changing the menu so when we're trying to split test things we don't want to change too many variables or we won't know you know what actually works and what doesn't so
um you know if we shrink the menu by 90% and then change the credit card structure we might see a decline in sales simply because our credit card structures changed so we want to know if our inventory if it makes an impact based on our offerings or if it's because we've changed the fee structure or whatever so change a variable at a
time and and try to fix that i think right yeah apologize is any other comments on that uh I just Yeah I saw the sheet i thought it was neat when I read it early on and I didn't really have a lot of context to it and so um I
think this is really worth exploring yeah for the public specifically maybe not so much for us i guess we're not we're going to make a little less money but but well the credit card company's going to make a little less money i think that's kind of the big deal so it's Fort yeah yeah they're raking us
over the coals uh any other comments or questions about Okay yeah so the monthly fee right now we pay $100 every month because we are charging stuff all year long or is that just like what we have to do it's just Forte's policy so it's for anything that uses a credit card
within Civic Recre specific okay and right so then when people like are renting a pavilion they're also using the same system correct so that's part Okay i wasn't thinking about that with like because I'm like that fee but that makes sense that's not a lot if someone's renting like a campground or something yeah and and a two and a half%
to a 3% increase isn't that major but we are paying $1,200 just for the usage of the system a year so um I don't know again yeah junking $465 worth of terminals I guess sounds bad but I guess in the long run uh would save us a
little bit of dough so um very good yeah I think one of the rates is good for campgrounds and teams registering right like 500 but we're operating on cash still correct it's just as good as money so they could just bring it in check
oh yeah yeah we can yeah bring it in yeah i'm just saying like historically I think this rate's been great because until last year we didn't have cards at the concession stands and now it's a more popular touch point for people interacting with the parks and I don't want it to be wow I can get a Coke for
two bucks at Holiday and it's five at Lum yeah memorial yeah yeah sunday yeah i'm Yeah yeah right i'm getting what you're spinning i think Yeah cash great uh current fee structure fine let's explore the new one okay yeah could we bring
this back like October after seasons are done thank you very good uh I think that'll do it right on the credit card processing um that was just a discussion item so um we'll motion for that or you
got it yep we're good all righty uh we'll move on to the workshop discussion 8B yes thank you Mr president and uh so May 6th uh I was reaching out to the president and discussing a
possible workshop to review some priorities for the park board for staff uh moving forward and we just thought we'd take a few hours and and uh just really hammer out some highlevel stuff that would be important for the board
some things for the staff we need some clarification on a few things we put together like a little agenda lisa put down some topics and I just thought that would be good for us to sit down and talk openly um about a couple priorities
and uh projects moving forward and regarding master planning and so forth very good yeah we're no stranger to a special meeting so I think a workshop would be outstanding uh JD's comments on this um date needs to be in May um and he is concerned about the number of
items and length of time and that was his only comment um on that particular topic so I think the workshop's great i think uh all of the conversations um that you have listed in topics are things that I'm concerned about um
especially like like I said getting getting all the master plans in one spot i think even since I've been on I haven't been able to find all of them and so if we can again bring all that stuff in get it all laid out um we can just again get another get our bearings
back and get everybody since you know staff has shifted a little bit um even in the 18 months that I've been on the board um get everything in one place and get everybody um on the same page again um just so that we all have the same documents we're all looking at the same
plans we're all um you know organized as we try to push these projects specifically like the the pickle ball complex when we were talking about that or you know uh as we'll hear with the Lions Park um you know those types of things that um you know we just need to all be kind
of on the same page for so I I'm totally in favor of this being done on uh what did you recommend the 6th may 6th correct may 6th so under Okay very good um can we get a do we we need a motion to just for us to work on that and organize yes please i
will make a motion that we will hold a cardboard workshop on May 6th uh from starting at 4 here works yep second motion and a second all
in favor of a parkboard workshop on May 6th not April 22nd as the agenda item says um at 4 p.m city Hall say I i all oppose same sign if you weren't here you're showing up no vote moving on to
the design for the ice skating area at JC's Park thank you Mr president and at JC Parks you're well aware that the ice skating rank area was at a lower elevation than some of the other areas around the park
and there's some standing water there and pro partially from the frost it hasn't allowed the the water to soak in but uh there's a number of things that we need to look at and I just want to discuss this at or bring a a design to
the parkboard workshop on a multiple of the things one obviously the the skating rink area we we have a plan that we could level that area a little bit so that we'd have a nice flat u usable skating rink area the second one is a
fence and if we where the rocks are individuals are moving them and it's going to be extremely time consuming for our park staff to weed whip around those rocks and it's just going to be really cumbersome a service road on the south
end it is by the where the horseshoe pits will be going and I'll be having this in a in the design if you want um and a service road for that area and then the fourth one being the lights uh the sporting lights for the soccer ice
skating rink and the parking lot so those four things I would like u to move forward with if the bark if the park board would like me to design something roughly to discuss at the workshop very good thank you Mike i'm going to
provide JD's uh comments first um I thought in previous discussions we had a backup plan in place in case of water pooling in the hole um I don't want to discuss that at the workshop i wanted to see a plan bought before the board to resolve it at the lowest cost possible
so his comment was simply um about the um I guess he he calls it the hole so we'll call it the hole for uh for continuity sake but um so that was his comment um and I and I and I kind of share that sentiment too i thought maybe
we were working on some sort of contingency for if it if the water didn't quite pull the way that we were intending it to yeah we're not uh there we were thinking about you know we had a and we've had this plan for uh you know
some time since we saw it when we after it was completed so we've already had a preliminary design in our head and but now that we see it the water is not going to drain very uh adequately so we need to maybe implement this plan and I
could have a drawing for you at the next park board meeting uh we won't be able to really move on anything with breakup and moving heavy equipment in that area so it's going to be a little bit anyway before we can move forward sure
comments for me I think yeah I just like to see the plan to repair the hole we can we can talk fence i light I know was an agenda item the lights were an agenda item at some point right um and then again the horseshoe pits I guess I'm not entirely sure of i guess as far as the
master plan is concerned i think we we can have kind of a two-part conversation during the workshop when we kind of review these plans and and go over okay what's missing how are we moving forward with these certain things um like the fence and I know the boulders were kind
of just a design choice more so um than you know uh over the fencing um so that's just kind of one of those things I guess we can have more of a design conversation about but the whole I think let's let's just have a plan for you know next month whatever it might be um
to get that thing leveled off and filled in and then we'll talk design i again the lights I I don't know where we're necessarily at with that i thought we approved a couple don't know where we put them yeah it's on the plan and it's just something that you guys have already approved of but just want to
reiterate and we could Yeah we we can talk more design more specific design elements at the at the workshop do we master oh okay sure oh there pits there right is that it down there oh that is the
horses oh it's in the plans very good uh yeah see again I haven't seen that thing in ever so very good um but yeah horseshoe pits and stuff like so the fencing and the lights we'll just have a brief conversation about design on um on
you location is when we have it all in front of us so um but yeah for me let's let's bring up a a plan for the whole the whole um for uh for the next meeting sounds good andrew uh one other thing i think we had thought about maybe
having a burm between the parking lot and the soccer field if we're going to be shuffing a lot of dirt in there i'd be interested to talk through that and if that's practical or not yeah we could um I'm not sure how
that would really the purpose of that um you're going to be so you have your the parking lot the walkway and then the soccer field um if we take four or five ft of a
burm now we shortened our soccer field where the line would already be 4t away if that's something that we want how are we going to mow it how are we going to because a burm could not just be two foot wide two foot high we're never
going to be able to mow that so it's would need to be eight foot wide two feet high and then we could possibly mow that um we just need our designs need to be conducive to our park maintenance
staff if we add five minutes to their schedule that's 5 minutes times 52 weeks now you've just added one more person to their workload yeah i think it's just the comment was more just if we have dirt there and we're leveling it off if we got a little extra let's actually
bring in we'll have to bring in dirt for this sure yeah or on the other side between the field and the pleasure rink yeah there actually will be uh so you'll see in my design it will the soccer field is at one elevation and it's going to come down probably a foot and then
it's going to go level for the ice skating rank area so there will be a little change in elevation coming down correct there you go cool and then Oh no you guys um is there any like error
omission thing we could take back to Widsth and say "Hey you designed a pleasure rink that becomes a swamp in the spring." The only thing that we could be the elevation that on the paper is I think
on the actuality if we went out and measured this with a transit it would be probably close to 6 to 8 in lower in reality versus the design do we really um in my opinion let's just go fix it and um there's
there they didn't do we checked off on it they gave us you know contingency you know a walkth through we had that opportunity and now that's um we could if if the board would really want to I would not recommend it um we're we're
going to have to be in there anyway good any other comments questions questions or concerns um about the hole uh the JC's hole all right uh motion for the plan I think
yeah for the make a motion to um look at your staff's drawings at our at our parkboard workshop on May 6th second perfect and then I guess with that comment then yeah so for the design side the rest of that stuff and then the
plan um for filling in the hole next next session okay so we can make a formal a formal you know because we're have to spend money on the the filling of the hole so to make a formal um you know to
approve the plan to fill this thing in um to be brought next meeting I think is what we would be looking okay so um I'm going to make a motion to for staff to provide us with a design and plan to fill in the JC's hole along
with um looking at his at the the new design plans with the fence and the parking lot and the horseshoe pits and the lighting and the lighting at the workshop yeah it and possibly a
BM second that all right motion to second on the amended motion to We got that all right very good all right any further discussion on the motion all in favor say I i same
sign we are moving along and filling the hole at JC's folks don't worry 8d um the discussion of the pickle ball complex at Buffalo Hills Lions Club Park um you know again a little change in the
discussion I suppose but um yeah yes we have the Lions Club member here and thank you for coming and and talking to us about uh your ideas at uh Buffalo Hills and I'll let you take the mic and um talk about that let her in all right
I will try to be brief i know you guys have been here a long time already um just but first give me 30 seconds to introduce myself i'm David Call i'm with the Brainer Lions i've been a Lion for 30 years um and just as a matter of information the Briner Lions Club is the
oldest active Lions Club in the state of Minnesota so we we've been around a long time we've partnered with the park board on all kinds of projects um and excuse me while we've done things with Gregory Park and with Mills Field and you know our our focus has really
been out at Buffalo Hills Park and we've helped build the pavilion we helped um put in the softball fields and the fencing and recently we were out there planting trees uh I think a couple of years ago we ground out stumps um so it's really been kind of we've sort of
adopted that park um and we continue to think that that's an underutilized resource for the city of Brainard um so we've we've uh provided $80,000 already to the city um what we'd like to do is
put in an adaptive playground so that um there aren't really any other places in the city of Brainard or even in Baxter at this point where handicapped children can access playground equipment um so this would be specialized equipment for
them um that total project is probably shaping out to be three to $400,000 so we're we're a ways off yet but we're working on it um we recently had a meeting with the Lakes Area uh pickle ball association um we were very excited
we think uh pickle ball courts at um Buffalo Hills makes or Lions Park we'd like it to be called um really makes a lot of sense um you know there's there's a lot of parking area there it's an underutilized facility uh South Brainer
could use some economic uh stimulus um the pickle ball is huge and growing um not that I play but I I do watch and so I see what's going on so we would really like to move forward with that
um I I can't speak definitively but it would appear that the Pickle Ball Association might have other plans and so that may not work out for for All Lions Park but I guess what I'm here asking today is two things first of all
um can I get a just kind of a nod of approval um to allow us to work with staff um to develop a plan and a budget and to begin fundraising for um an adaptive playground and pickle ball
courts at Lions Park and the second thing I would ask um we sent a letter so I think it'll come up on your next agenda would be in um could we officially change the name to Lions Park currently I believe it's Buffalo
Hills/Lions Park but that that's a minor thing i'm really more interested tonight in in you know just getting a nod that said "Yeah wow that would be awesome let's move forward together." Thank you yeah appreciate it Dave so much thank you
asking question yeah absolutely andrew looked like he had a question go ahead go first oh do you have a sense of where in the park you would want to put the courts yeah we've um we've sort of maybe you know gotten ahead of ourselves and we've had a couple meetings with Mike and um
so yeah uh the courts would would at least in this design there have been lots of designs at Lions Park in this design uh they would run along the front of the park along Buffalo Hills um we
would start with four or six maybe grow to 12 um and then it gets you know then you're way out there where it gets really blurry and there's talk about trading pieces of property with the school district and then maybe we can you know get to 24 someday um but at
this point you know let's get the first four or six built and and then we'll go from there but that's I'm not sure how to address you sir um I think I think that Andrew Andrew
okay um that's kind of the intent of my ask tonight is to be able to work with staff to to pull those plans together so that we can come before the board and sell you on what a great idea this is my question was going to be um about I I
think you guys came here before and we have already let you guys know we would support the playground yeah yep um so I mean you're so really tonight you're just asking us for support in for the pickle ball along with that right or just continue that is correct okay no that's correct okay um and and this time
I think we're asking uh uh so we asked permission to do this and you guys were on board with that and we started putting money away for that to happen and then we began to realize what a huge project this is you know it's not 80 or 100 grand it's going to be 300,000
um and so we're going to need to be able to do fundraising and u so you we just want to make you aware of that that we'll be out getting money yeah a renewed is that okay can we get money for the park is that all right i don't know so when do we have the
playground don't we have that scheduled for this year or next year already yeah so we have money to replace the playground there this year like it's in our budget this year to do but now to discuss
again I think I think00 we would have to defer to staff my understanding is that there have been all kinds of changes with regards to the parking lot and other stuff and so I I'm not sure that would be a just discussion because
we'd have to before we replaced obviously the the playground we'd want to make sure the plans for future pickle ball courts weren't exactly where the playground's going to go yes ma'am so okay and and you know if you're envisioning handicapped folks using the the playground they need a way to get
there so then you're talking paved paths and you Okay then you got to have a paved parking lot and so it gets pretty complicated yeah i mean the parking lot is going in like Yeah the gravel is Yeah guarding oh right yeah and I will I will say I was
in attendance for the meeting as well so um yeah a lot of the conversation was obviously the the the playground is in the plans right i mean we we've got it there um and then yeah the money we have already for um capital improvement um is there for that as well i mean some
amount of money right um so it's really yeah again coordinating with staff getting Yeah the renewed interest um for an adaptive playground which again I you know I think we're all still fully behind um that based on you know uh the conversations we've already had about
that particular playground um it's just again the the planning and the logistics of uh making sure everything lines up i think the pickle ball side of things again we'll continue to have the ongoing conversations and try to get it to fit to plan and we can certainly talk about
that during the workshop as I think we already have on the agenda item but yeah the renewed um you know getting some head nods and saying yeah we are still interested in in getting you an adaptive uh playground in that park i think that's I think the general consensus is still there so I think I think my
concern with that is as we move to a gravel parking lot we're now putting an adaptive playground where the parking lot and the path to the playground is not accessible oh yeah right so with this motion would
be the approval of the Lions Club to go out and get grants for multiple things one a paved parking lot an adaptive playground structure and pickle ball complex and the when we talk about an adaptive uh all ability playground uh
facility this at this level would be the size of like a basketball court it's not going to be what's currently there a very small one this would be quite large and would take up a footprint and that would we would again look at the master
plan master plans by definition are designed they're not written in stone because again five years ago no one had pickle ball courts in their parks now they're everywhere that's how flexible master plans need to be and uh so it really be those three components the
ability to go write a grant and the grant would encompass the parking lot paved uh to the playground structure the playground structure itself and pickle ball complex do you want to and then there was also a small discussion on the actual that legacy trail if you wanted
to encompass that the Lions Club is is have a strong leg that legacy of them and how they've come to be and how they get still stay in form and and get new members that legacy trail would be somewhere in the park and would carry on
their legacy by signage and getting the general public knowledgeable about the leg the Lions Club so there's all those components within that and again we'd have to have a master plan that would move forward in that direction
yes um and I just want to play devil's advocate here then and be fiscally responsible so appreciate so excited about this money that you would be sharing with us at Lions Park but how will we as a park board and city look at
all of these new things in our master like in our 30-year budget or you know however we got to think about that too when we're doing it because we've we're already you know the money is tight and so we're going to have to like relook at that too and I know Andrew you can speak to the budget better but I just want to
throw that out there and this is so exciting but again what happens when something happens it's I know you guys will be able to maybe provide $10,000 you know you guys are good about like trying to support that way but if like we need a new roof or you know something like that we got to think about those kind of things as we're adding new
structures to our parks absolutely just a longterm maintenance um sort of thing because again yeah my time on here yep but there there's a lot of focus on what do we do in 30 years and how do we cover the costs for those so just kind of something to keep in mind as we as we build a $400,000 structure um how we
intend to maintain it would the board like this to go to the city council to ensure they're okay with it because you're absolutely right if whatever you pay for this for this structure within 30 years you'll be paying that same amount to upkeep it
i guess I don't know i mean if Dave was here we could ask him when he was here but I I I I think we're still in relatively I mean not early early stages but we are just at that point now where we need to find out how much it's going to cost what we need to do logistically
again there will be some savings because we're turning it to gravel already um on the parking lot side of things like what is it going to take to make an adaptive parking lot walkways and the playground what does that number look like and how far off are we before we have those
types of like really in-depth conversations and send it upstairs because I mean they're just going to say well what is it going to cost I mean what do we even know like you know we don't have anything I mean we have some definitive or close to definitive numbers but we don't quite know and then
I think we still as far as you know where the parking lot's going to be placed and how big it's going to be and the footprint the playground will take up and what we can a lot planning wise is something that we we just need to have a conversation about I think planning m workshop planning wise before
we we kick it up and go okay yeah we we like this idea but how do you can we can we afford to do this so um I'm with you um we do really want to focus on longterm but I think we can still figure out planning inhouse and make sure that it fits the bill because
again we the playground's promised but the you know the pathway and the and the parking lot um you know we have to make some some decisions on and then you know even going f one step further and saying pickle ball um based on you know the the
layout of the master finding of that particular park like where we have those particular amenities you know um right there I mean those can be pickle ball right like it works in the plan but again having a conversation about about that because that parking
lot's sizable by comparison so I mean it's just again and then having those walkways through some you know one other potential amenity and making adjustments to that so Mike and one thing that I would recommend is that maybe we do
revise our master plan and then bring that forth to the city council get their blessing making sure that these new amenities would be underneath their you know vision for the future and we and we can certainly provide that in our uh budget conversation later because you
know I mean again we're going to be presenting the budget and we're going to say look this is what we're doing lions club's kicking in a bunch of dough etc etc and this is you know what the what the plan looks like now and here's how we're going to support it so I think that's an excellent point i yeah I'd like to have a foundation before we go
up upstairs and say hey we're we got another $400,000 amenity we need you to kick 3% in on every year so I would just recommend that uh we do a master plan after the master plan has been approved of by city council because
these amenities are large amenities after we get approval that is when we allow the Lions Club to move forward with grant writing and so forth you could do some preliminary research and there's a lot of preliminary stuff that you could do you'll need that master
plan anyway to submit to with the grants um so I if we could just get direction to to look at the master plan we could bring I don't want to add anything more to the workshop so maybe just next month we have a preliminary or just another
design uh to look at yeah because the playground is in on the plan as it sits and the parking lot is there just I mean I guess right now it's just gravel but you know basically all the only thing that needs to be amended is to get a walk a pathway and then and then a paved parking lot into that spot so I don't
think necessarily if you know if we were to approve a plan like that there isn't much i mean for the playground or the adaptive portion of it specifically excluding pickle ball but even on the the pickle ball side of things we already have tennis courts in place there on the plan so it's just kind of
they're pickle ball courts oh they are pickle ball courts well very good i mean we're basically just already there so yeah just a few a few touch-ups and then uh and bring that back to next month perfect yep my hesitation still is one of the strategies we're looking at to
kind of combine some of our maintenance is to have centralized parks focused on a theme so okay Bane Park for example we have the Miracle Field sure and so is that maybe a location that we make the investment in to build and maintain ADA
accessible parking lots and pathways to get to both the Miracle Field and an accessible playground and so we can centralize some of those amenities and invest to make those pathways once and maintain them once instead of well we have an accessible playground at at
Lions Park and the Miracle Field at Bane and now we have right multiple uh parking lots and sidewalks and amenities that we have to maintain and so is there a way to combine that and save some costs for us in the long run so I think that's kind of my hesitation with this
is yes if we get a grant to pave the parking lot and pave a trail to an accessible playground that's excellent but maintenance- wise we're committing to a a larger amount in the long run and I think that gives me pause even though I very much want accessible playground like that's the tension for me is I want
this to happen i saw the article on the Riverside accessible playground i'm excited about that but as a board right we have to try to make the best use of the funds that we have and so that's where I have some pause here is is there we can make this happen but maybe at a
different park that has some better long-term maintenance for us so I guess that's maybe something I'd want to talk through at the workshop of Right there's demand for an accessible park right you're interested in doing that at Lions Park yep riverside PTO is
doing it at Riverside which is near Bane so like does that make sense for us still anymore lions is farther away from Riverside so yep but things to talk about yeah yeah love the I think that it' be a beautiful
place for courts and that'd be awesome all right thank you thank you so much thank you thank you Dan just one more discussion if I could regarding um I totally understand your aspect Andrew regarding that all
abilities at one location the nice things uh when we're looking at adaptive and all abilities you want it across the board so that there um things of this nature are incorporated in all abilities um throughout um so it's just a little
different of a just a switch of a thought to have all ability access to playground structures across our our inventory um it again there's no right or wrong approach to this it is just a perspective um so I just want to throw
that out there and I think with the other part of the conversation from the association as well was that a paved and fully paved path to like the pickle ball amenities and the playground is kind of a twofur because a lot of the clientele that that play pickle ball also have to
kind of scoot a little um to to move to these amenities so it it kind of lines up really well um on both sides to have paved path and then it's of course across the street from you know a place there where a lot of those folks do have some mobility issues as well so it does
kind of uh as far as the neighborhood um is concerned um it does apply a lot of that accessibility to um to the neighbor side of things as well um and to again promotion of the the pickle ball sport um since a lot of the the our play group
is of of course all ages but um there is a very targeted demo um locally so um that was one of those uh kind of conversations from the pickle ball side um as well so the association exciting well again appreciate your time
Dave thank you so much um we will move on to the public forum it's time allocated for citizens to bring matters not on the agenda to the attention of the board uh we will open the public forum at 5:30 and we are
going to close the public forum at 5:31 um and move on to staff reports perfect i'm going to turn it right over to Kayla and she's going to talk about all of our events registration is open for pickleball league and that's Tuesday and Thursday
nights at uh Memorial Park uh the deadline to register is May 16th and uh the Easter egg hunt and dog ball hunt went really well last Saturday weather was really nice um and we had
great turnouts uh Gregory Park works really well for separating age groups by quadrants so so yeah I'm happy with how it went packed
yeah what JD said yeah I will yep nothing else that's it oh I love it uh we'll move on to board member reports then and I'll start with what uh JD said um because it piggybacks off that um I want to say great job and thank you to
Kayla and staff for the great Easter events i felt both events had great great all caps attendance and we're very wellreceived i would suggest that the park board explore securing a sound system microphone and a couple of speakers it's a great problem to have that our events are becoming so well
attended that we uh need to begin using amplified sound for everyone to hear i would like to see staff spend some time focusing on how we ensure that our parks have the best appearance to them and we have luscious green space and healthy green grass throughout our park system the first impression when citizens and visitors arrive at our park should be
amazing and it starts with great curb appeal so um great sentiment there and I think it's the same thing when we share this same sentiment is that um the park system is really how we is our is our wares it's how we display our our
community to people um you know without anything organized and I'm the same sentiment again we're moving in we're you know we're still in April so the green grass thing you know um you know it's maybe a little early on in that but um I do I do like that curb appeal and
um it is our our wares um and so moving on to me um uh the doggo hunt was awesome I really you know it was it was incredible um and then we were we started kind of talking to so the pickleball thing um kind of devolved
over the course of the day they met on Sunday we had our we went to that meeting um uh what was it thursday Mike yes Thursday and um you know a lot of conversation they were they were pretty heavy on board on Thursday but then they spoke to their board on Sunday and and
had basically organized a a much bigger plan for um Trailside Park so um again ironing through whether or not parkour actually has jurisdiction over that anymore um if it's been dedicated as parkland um is probably something we we
do need to explore before we give them a a thumbs up i know again Chris the vice president of the association sent a letter with a lot of their intent and and things like that like what they want to do how they want to run the programming etc etc a lot of things that maybe we would have liked to see uh when
we were talking about Gregory um but um if that is an option and trailside is still our thing um I do I we shared the sentiment last month it's a great spot there's a lot of parking it's a lot of room um and it is relatively secluded so
I mean you know whatever I I think Visit Brainer defined it as 112 acres so it's a lot of space for pickle ball and it's kind of out of the neighborhood sort of thing i mean there's a little less little less noise pollution sort of thing going on there so again I I do appreciate uh the association's uh
deeper dive into something that's maybe a little bit more feasible if if we still have that land not that we can't try to get it back but uh you know it's kind of one of those weird things i don't know where that is who would have it like who would own it if parks well just the city right it's not dedicated
as parkland anymore maybe we could just ask for it back yeah can I have that back please um but but you know so that's just something again I we we had this conversation i just I can't definitively say if it's been dedicated or not or if it's been undedicated or
whatever it might be um but uh I like that plan and uh look forward to being able to have the rest of the board be able to to see that so um otherwise uh not much else again I really appreciate the I don't know who did the research
into the the processing fees but I great i mean that's again to Andrew's point I mean balancing service and business is really important and I I I would hate personally to go to have to spend $1.95 per transaction at the concession stand
so as coming up with alternatives is really great i appreciate whoever went out that's it for me um just on the pickle ball stuff I feel like we're kind of in a negative feedback loop with them where like they come to us and say "Hey here's this
great idea." Yeah like we have some questions and then it kind of blows up and like to your point we were talking about Buffalo Hills Lions today yeah and you're already like well they're on the trail side so like is there a way we can meet with them as a board and say what
you know what are you looking for what can we offer he's been the maestro i mean I'm sure you can Yeah so when we talked with them they are still in discussions that we just this letter was just done today and so the next uh
formal meeting will have a better presentation to inform the board of what are the options with the pickle ball association um they like you know Buffalo Hills they love working with them but just that location is pretty
hard for them to get on board with that and so they they're going to be they want to serve more of the Niswah Cross Lake G uh Gull Lake area and that's why they wanted central uh Brainard or North Brainard so
but we'll have something more concrete a little bit more extensive i feel this particular time around uh the the planning and what they're trying to accomplish is a little bit better relayed in this document um and uh you know it's it's a lot more organized
thought and again I I expressed to them in this in the meeting as well that I thought them being here and being an advocate for their project would have been a little bit more helpful um and so I think that led to um because Chris couldn't be here tonight he was attempting to be here um but could not could not make it in this evening so
they put together this this document uh for us to relate um some of the intent but so they can present kind of the idea a little bit better and have a little bit more again with the programming and the reason why and all these other things um so that a little bit better
understanding of it and understand like hey these folks are pretty serious about getting this done and like ASAP um and yeah it does seem very like okay all right Greg is not going to work let's move on okay now you know and and so again this was a little bit more definitive and um was kind of a
conversation that came up through the through the meeting about yeah I just I want to be a partner with them i want this to happen and like learning about oh we need a paved surface it's like we have a giant parking lot at Memorial that we actively
don't want yeah right so like can we turn that into a pickle ball court and a skate park and have parking still like uh just being able to understand their needs and then fit that into what we have in our master plans but sounds like you're on it well I mean look I mean I'm
just an advocate of the project like I said I I like the community getting involved in a lot of these things it's just Yeah where does it make the most amount of sense that was something that we talked about during that meeting as well was where does it make the most amount of sense i mean Buffalo Hills does make sense because they're across the street from you know a care facility
the neighborhood's uh more acclimated to the probably the pickle ball style of sport um than uh than maybe even softball on that side of things and um you know when we move on to tournaments and talking about those types of conversations it it's literally next to the only hotel we have in the city so um
you know it's one of those uh conversations um that where does it make the most sense and you know again uh coming up with that and then doing trailside after we already had a conversation was like h maybe you have something here so um going uh further down that rabbit hole but yeah I I totally understand uh your sentiment
there it's just for me also is spreading out the amenities across the system and having Memorial have literally everything would be kind of a bummer because they already have pickle ball courts and so you know when I sat down and thought about it too it was just like where do these make the most amount of sense is it the middle of kind of
nowhere near Beaver Dam Road next to a parking lot i don't know but if they've got a good plan for it and they want it to go a specific way you know there's uh there's room for discussion so cool um yeah also want to thank Lisa Kayla and Lori for looking into the
credit card processing and meeting on that that was really helpful and excited for some possibilities there um yeah Easter egg hunt was great uh 10-month-old was not up for eggs but we got a photo with the bunny so it was a success he looks very mad but the photo
exists um and I wanted to thank uh Deian Barry i know she's retiring but she put on concerts in Gregory for years it's made it a really fun Thursday event in the park go walk the dogs there listen to some live music it's just feels like summer in Brainer and I appreciate everything she did to make that
happen uh I think that's it well um I'm just excited about everything that we're doing it's really great and you guys have like a lot of great events planned um for the upcoming rest of the year uh I think it would be great to see a little bit more like
social media i know you guys do like I share and interested in like the egg hunt and the ball hunt even though we were out of town we didn't make it but like getting out when things are green and showing people like when maybe show them JC's do like a live i don't know what the rules are but you know like
show them hey have you checked out this new park or No not the hole okay we'll watch out for that but um just like anything like the kayak thing I know we tried this last summer a little bit to get like a photo contest or whatever but maybe you guys go out there one afternoon and just like show people how
it's done um and do one of those like fast forward things or whatever you know just like more just like real live things that are happening and I know obviously needs to fit into your day so but I think social media is a really big piece that we're kind of missing out on so if that's
possible but yeah that's all no weeds i'm not going to bring up the weeds i'm gonna bring up the weeds where are we at on the weeds at Lump Park where are we at we have a contractor scheduled to go out there and we met with the ski loons
and we briefly talked about them maybe helping they're going to be going back to their board and and talking a little bit more but uh we do have a contractor going out there it's just extremely expensive yeah um yeah i mean I just this could just change my life right 30
years and not being allowed to swim in that water my my mom would probably still be against me going in that so um so I just you know um anything that again I can do to assist certainly um I want to I want to I I really want to see that happen like that would actually
make make my day so um but yeah we'll keep bringing the weeds up every Yeah I didn't I never do i went down there actually looks great down there i don't know if you have you guys been there super yeah it looks I mean it looks amazing there was a some some
cracked uh slab or concrete uh on the walkways down but um I like that the little little wall thing next to the pavilion's gone too that thing looked great and uh yeah the uh the shade structures are kind of neato so um yeah no I I that thing looks cool yeah and I
saw where like the we could do more beach expansion that little kind of debris area um on the other side but yeah you know wrestling terms for everything at the park sound debris it's very technical yeah it is very
technical yeah right move to our workshop on May 6th second motion a second all in favor say I i all oppose same sign we are
adjourned to the May 6th workshop