##VIDEO ID:tFFk6zSMYKE## all right you guys all call the meeting uh meeting to order uh the first item is to adopt tonight's agenda I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda second a motion's been made and seconded to adopt tonight's agenda all in favor say I I I motion passes next item is to approve the minutes from the October 8th 2024 meeting let's good to me think I'll make a motion to approve the minutes as submitted okay all right a motion's been made and seconded to approve for minutes any discussion nope no all in favor say I I motion passes item four Park financial information we do not have the end of the year summary yet Mike is still working on those he thought maybe by the end of February they'd have all the official numbers so I included the uh one from November on here that got us pretty close to where we at with the parks Budget on the first page there is our Parks uh two two Capital funds the park acquisition and Development Fund is sitting at $190,000 um this is going to be about $90,000 more than what we had kind of budgeted for for our 2025 Capital Improvement plan a lot of that was due to the elevage park dedication fees and we're going to start seeing the Capstone ones coming in now they just turned in their first I think it's $770,000 that's probably not reflected on here yet um that's going to come in in probably three four maybe five installments as they go through the different phases with that Capstone project so that budget is looking good uh the the one below there is the park Capital fund um we spent $189,000 out of that this year on different playground stuff a couple projects that carried over from last year that budget's at $559,000 and that is about $177,000 ahead of where we at planned going into 2025 so both of those are in the black and uh we'll start going over some of that planning in coming months here on where we're going with that so I love a good budget yeah that's awesome we should do my budget at home it's it's nice to finally have some nice to see that Park Acquisitions fund building up that that's a comes directly from the developers any other questions on those two nope and then the next page is our main maintenance operations budget um this shows we're at 88% starting December and we finished the year under budget I don't have the final numbers but we're we were quite a bit under for both this and the Public Works depart uh Department budget the street side of things and this is the one that doesn't roll over right this does not roll over um the entire city budget goes back into the general fund and then the council can decide what to do with that going forward in the past they've used some of that money to help pay down keep the Le down or they can use it for different projects um so there's going to be a surplus Citywide for going for 2025 as well but they're still working on all the final numbers getting everything paid from 2024 and um they're getting ready for the audit on that as well so very good nice work yeah good job motion to approv budget as present second second motion's been made and seconded to approve the park financial information any more discussion just just curious on this one here that says um building and facility repair supplies 22 and 28% was that just like something that was at the city um I can't remember specifically what that was so that would be anything that was for Park placement um like the uh playgrounds anything that had to be repaired on playgrounds anything had to be repaired on the buildings um even some irrigation stuff like that comes out of that budget um yeah I don't know specifically there wasn't anything really large this year we didn't have any insurance claims that I can recall so okay I was just curious what that would yeah we go over on some and under on others and we kind of just kind of keep track of that bottom number is the main thing yeah um each individual line we just kind of for for record keeping and trying to track purposes going forward for future budgets but I was just checking because sometimes we've had things put into the park budget because there's not money in other budgets yeah I'm not aware of that happening at all this year like I said we T we talked about in the past we we do have an insurance claim it comes out of here the city gets reimbursed for the insurance company but that money is not showing back in here in a different fund general fund yeah all right cool thanks anybody have anything else good job n yeah thanks Nate good job good job this year to the to the motion to all those in favor say I motion passes item five 2025 Athletic Field repairs or field requests sorry consider approval of the 2025 Athletic Field reservation requests city of East bethl has received ball field requests for regular week night use from soderville Blan Athletic Association St Francis youth baseball and St Francis fast pitch as well as one weekend tournament sbaa is requesting the use of fields 1 through eight at booster West and East from April 14th to July 12th four nights a week and the baseball field Monday through Thursday from May 5th to July 31st St Francis youth youth baseball association is requesting two Fields a night on Tuesdays and Thursdays from April 28th to July 25th and a tournament the weekend of May 31st to June 2nd St Francis fast pitch is requesting three fields on Mondays Tuesdays Wednesdays and Thursdays from April 14th to July 31st uh that should actually be Tuesdays or Thursdays I think on this on the on the plan and then um East Bethal Bandits would like to use the baseball field just three nights for a practice or two nights for a practice one night for a game and then again on booster day so they kind of cut back on their request and at this time the city has not received any other requests for week night use of ball fields and no conflicting weekend requests we have also not received any requests for renting and operating the concession stand so in the past the concession stand was rented by sbaa the last couple years they rented it but didn't really open it up and with that is the bathrooms out there I put the request out to St Francis youth youth baseball and fast pitch to see if they wanted to do it and kind of make some money I'm waiting to hear back from them as of right now we don't have anybody to run the concession stand and then um we didn't get a request from the fast pitch to do their annual Father's Day we did not okay yep and we asked them about that and they were not prepared to do that yet they were still looking into it I guess it is Monday through Thursday through the fast P sorry it was correct and the right up so we put together a uh uh attachment five is kind of a draft plan that we do each year we're not able to meet the requests of all these teams um because of conflicts like SBA wanted every field every night they would they would take it if they could um the good part is we did not we did not have any club teams this year requesting either so uh this is kind of the same thing we've done the last couple years each team gets two fields on the fourplex and then if they want um one of the one of the ones on the east side the baseball team has kind of liked using field five right back here behind City Hall we did buy temporary fences for that one that we put up quite a bit last year and that seemed to really make that field a lot more eable for him so that's kind of what we're looking at and as far as I know I think all the organizations would be okay with it these organizations haven't been haven't seen this yet no no I'll send it to them once decide if they want to make any changes or anything from the park commission so did you say there were conflicts in requesting so you put the schedule together tried to make as many people happy as we could oh okay but nobody's completely happy which is probably a good compromise that's how compromised everybody suffers a little bit right well and I think on this side of booster booster East they don't use every field no it ends up a lot of times they they rent them they pay they reserve them but they don't use them especially SBA last couple years it seems like in fact there's a coed um adult team that practices every Wednesday night right behind and field seven so you show up looking for an open field yep yeah I have a question when the during the season when the fields are open uh Friday Saturday Sunday if a group wants to go there and practice does it first come first serve or yes yep okay I just wanted to reate that they're open to the public um if they want to make sure they have a time they can reserve it um but otherwise it's first come for serw okay we also have the uh mayor Peterson agreement that I didn't include in here that's kind of already been laid out for the next two years with that organization too so okay you said that's the next two years yeah I think it was a three-year contract they signed okay I was going to ask about so so is that how many days a week or nights a week is that they want it all four nights a week okay so that is Monday through Thursday yep so FR because there is a local um boys B baseball and there's a coach that's that lives on the beach that's asked about it yeah I think he contacted so I could tell them that Friday is all Friday nights and the weekends are open okay and they haven't reserved anything for tournaments or how would that no that one that one we usually give them until um I think it's it's in the contract I think it's mid April before they can turn in their request for tournaments so we won't know that until the season kind of gets going for them but um they didn't have any the last couple years we're looking at possibly doing an event for our 20 for a 100y year anniversary volunteers sure um provided we can put it together and it would be a weekend thing so is we would need to I would fill out a park a facilities request for when we have a date yep when and the volunteers okay thank you yeah another question for the park commission too is in the past we've had these Club teams that want to play in rent fields and we've kind of struggled with how we prioritize them versus the youth organizations a lot of the club teams are kind of uh they're not considered nonprofits they're actually they pay the coach there's profit involved with it does the park commission have any feeling on whether or not they should have priority over the youth groups or does it matter well I think that if it because they're highly competitive too so they're going to want to use the regulation field probably if it's older kids that's usually what the requests have been yep we've had so a team called the snowcats that disbanded um Tim you might know a few from yeah there's been a lot of kind of actually The Father's Day tournament got taken over by the snow cats and they they disbanded that's why you're not seeing any right request for that right now nobody else has stepped in and fill that void yet I suspect there might be a club team that decides to try to do that it's a lot of work mhm you know it's I ran that tournament for a long time that's a lot of work so they mean that they me never get that back up and running which is unfortunate it is it is it was it was a lot of fun kids kids love tournaments talented yep we usually had 40 teams and wow we'd Run 100 games in two days wow we kept the field popping so but as far as Club teams wanting to use Fields during the week um I really think that to feed those Club teams we need the locals like sbaa and St Francis fast pitch and St Francis Youth Baseball to feed those Club teams exactly if they don't have a place to play then the club teams don't ever get fed right so that just so see the the younger kids get a chance I agree yeah I don't I don't think they should be given any priority over the over the younger kids teams I think they should have a priority it worked out well this year we didn't have that conflict but it had has come up in the past and we kind of struggle with how to I guess what's fair in that right as a community park is it make more sense to give it to the nonprofits and the youth organizations over a for-profit team that's being it works out well with maor Peterson because it was a field that wasn't used and they kicked in a bunch of money improved it if you know if we have that come up again maybe we could get them on one of our other fields and have them make some improvements and right we have enough fields that are close enough that if we did Route them somewhere else it would be too out of the way well some of those fields need a little work so if they wanted to kick in and like they did over manand Pon and well even improve it SB what are they now SB they've been maintaining the fields here at booster for years yeah they used to they used to give us a lot more money they hav't for they they had the gambling yeah it's it's been 15 20 years since they've kicked in really any money for upkeep on the fields I know weren't they buying the chalk and stuff though they yeah but we charge that back to the other we use that for their games and they charge it back to the other teams oh cuz I use it too y okay so they all pay for their own chalk pretty much now I know SBA has kicked in a lot of money for Fields down in Ham Lake they've kind of been investing most of their stuff down there it seems like but I think that might have had a lot to do with the blame when they originally I was on the board and originally it was more North and I think as it as he lost the gambling and blame came more in and I think the two St Francis leagues have uh increased their numbers more too exactly I'm glad to see the bandits are here now absolutely instead of playing in St Francis or Ham Lake or wherever they can get did you say the bandits are using it less this year than they did last year for practices yeah the they uh they really need lights and they would use that field yeah for everything do you recall when we I know we have lights on our plant but do you recall when that is I have it I looked at it today it was 2028 but okay um but if we have a surplus can we start looking at that maybe it was around I think $350,000 was the estimate we got for lights on there so it's it's a it's a lot that's a lot so for comparison the Capstone development I think is like 370 some thousand that they're donating in park dedication for that Park and whatever else we want to do with that money so that's going to be a big portion of our next couple years planning that Park that'll be the second biggest park in the in the city when it's complet of course they were just going to peace mail their payments to us so it's going to be hard to do it's going to hard to do something over there yeah right it might be it might be four years before I they they kind of want the part built early on I'm sure CU it's kind of a attraction to sell houses but right if we don't money but they then they said they wanted the money they were giving us to be put into their development but how can that be if we have none of their money right yep it's just one big pot we don't have a surplus time money for lights like the twins or somebody like that uh we can look into it I know they we've used we've used the twins Grant in the past it's usually I don't know how much they would pay on that but worth I don't know they they built a couple Fields like in Athens and somewhere else up here so maybe they'd be interested yeah those fields are lighted I have the vendors keeping an eye on used lights for us too but is there a place we can rent some temporary ones until we put permanent ones in I think we talked about just parking our cars around a circle there one option you have a flood light at home just bring it with bring some satellites in and just have them beam down yeah yeah I'll check on that twins Community Fund I know we in the P it's been a while since I don't know after people in the he fire think looking at your chur over the last couple days I you've done a great job of trying to put something together that got a little bit of everybody what they wanted exactly yep I'm always amazed at how it comes together too Nate how many hours do you spend on that uh it's a lot of it's just border plate stuff from previous years and then I go through all the requests and change all the dates and stuff not couple days yeah okay looks good yeah looks like we felt really good anybody want to make a motion I'll make a motion to approve and thank you very much Nate for your time I'll make a motion to approve the facilities request for the ball field as submitted I'll second all right the motion has been made and seconded to approve the athletic field request is there any more discussion hearing none all in favor say I hi hi motion passes I have one little thing now that we're done with this but we did bring up meor Peterson is it possible that we can put some sort of handicap bust into that curb or make that plan yeah we're going to do that inhouse probably next summer beautiful that's on our to-do list okay just check build a ramp off the corner and up to the by the by the picnic table and put a picnic table area in there in the corner that'll be good that' be good my kind of on M Peterson I guess a little bit does that Lo get plowed is that in the plan to plow it all we don't normally plow it it hasn't doesn't really have much use in the winter time but maybe with that Sky Rider now might yeah cuz I just drove through there the other day and it's uh I mean there's out of that parking lot a lot so I don't know if they're just going in there and hanging out I don't know if they're using in the Sky Rider or not but anybody seen that at all down there we can plow it yeah traffic in that we usually do our our Parks the second day um our next available work day we usually don't do that on overtime yeah we can easily do add that to it we do John Anderson we try and do booster the day of if we can because that gets a lot of use but the trails sometimes aren't plowed until the next day yeah I don't think may be a high priority but uh but there is a lot of seems to be lot of traffic and out of that parking lot bit I couldn't get up I was going to I couldn't get up into it because of the curb I've done it yeah I R on it oh it's really fun all our crew has to we we took our grandkids over there last summer after it was put in and we had a ball it was so much fun not a lot of activity right now because it's just too darn cold but I'm sure it'll get used in the summer it's wonderful all right next up it looks like we have some ter renewals Nate do you want to handle those yep first one up uh consider a recommendation for Bonnie Harvey to serve another term on the park commission the current term for commissioner Harvey is set to expire on January 31st of 2025 commissioner Harvey has submitted a letter seeking to serve an additional threeyear term that would expire on January 31st 2028 I didn't submit we need a motion yeah we're looking for a motion a second a vote and then the person would abstain from voting and oh we never did that before the three that you can't vote for yourself no but we never did that before did we yeah we voted yep well we voted but we didn't have a recommendation people would just say if they wanted to and they'd submit a letter right but then it's got to go to council still got to have a recommendation from Parks no but I thought it go to coun sub somewhere along the line it did change cuz you used to have to go to council first and then they voted you in right there yeah you send a letter to them first and say you're interested yeah last couple years we've done it this way and then we send this to the council a recommendation from the park commission and then it's up to council and then if Council accepts it then it's a swearing in they get sworn in at the next meeting meeting y okay well I'll make a motion other than the three that have uh submitted there letters has there been any other interest we have not received or heard from anybody else no okay it's a good question go ahead I'll make a motion that we uh recommend Bonnie Harvey for another serving another term on the park I'll second that all right a motion's been made and seconded to approve Bonnie's position on the Parks Commission any discussion not in front of her no all the favor say I I hi I I motion pass say congrats Bonnie and item seven is another Park commission ter all and that's mine I'll make a recommendation to for Bill to serve another term I'll second I'll second that all right a motion's been made and seconded to approve my position on the park commission uh all in favor say I I motion passes and yet one more Mary Helen I'll make a motion to accept the uh renewal of Mary Helen I'll second that all right motion's been made and seconded to approve the position of Mary Helen on the park commission for another term all in favor say I I I motion passes that was easy congrats congratulations everybody thank you all for serving another term we appreciate your uh volunteering and hard work to stay on this board we're not there yet city council still has to approve us that's true Y at least for your interest in serving another term how about that there you go there we go there you go all right item nine is Council report and other business Tim what do you got for us first of all I can say congratulations to everyone who's reapplying you're well accepted up at the city council and you're appreciated so thank you for that as I'm looking back on this last year I wrote this down I just wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for the entire Parks Commission for your outstanding efforts for your achievements for your dedication and engaging in our community with our residents and it hasn't gone unnoticed the input that you guys have gathered and your understanding for the needs of our neighborhoods truly sets the foundation for us to be able to tailor these parks and be effective and make the improvements that our Parks truly need your commitment to actively involving residents and shaping the future of our local parks has strengthened the connection between our community and our green spaces this collaborative approach ensures that our Parks continue to be assets and reflect the desires and values of our citizens moreover I am deeply appreciative of the exceptional working relationship you all have together up here and you've maintained with the city council as well your teamwork in open minds of communication Have Been instrumental in ensuring a smooth operations and successful projects in their imple imple implementations I can't get that word off they look great uh we have seen some remarkable progress thanks to your professional and dedication you've done this on limited budgets and you haven't had a lot to work with so I thank you once again for your hard work your creativity and your Cooperative spirit and I look forward to continuing our partnership into the new year and witnessing the positive impact your efforts are making on our community I'd like to recognize Nate first of all uh we have a lot of stuff going on and he has done an excellent job of staying not only within budget but under it while maintaining our parks and incredible high level uh the city and council is proud uh that approach and appreciation that this city has should be directed directly at you Nate at your crew and this committee for what they've done in this city so with that uh here's to another successful year you guys are stuck with me for a while more and uh I appreciate that and I look forward to working with you and Council us too thank you thanks Tim thanks thanks Tim I want to reiterate too the Nate you make it easy for us so thank you for that thank you said our crew is a great crew to work with and they they got a lot done this year uh the weather was good um we had some budget stuff that we were able to we got a lot of projects done we didn't have a lot of Park commission meetings cuz we're pretty efficient this year but um there was a lot of projects done for for 2025 our big project that we have on our budget is the completion the Baton Trail project um I think that was I think we had like 120,000 on that it's going to be a little bit more of a contracted out project on that part of it we'll try and do as much as we can inhouse but that one's going to take a little bit more of a engineering side to get by some of those wetlands and things in there um I know Sue has mentioned that trail at John Anderson we have that in there this year one of these spring meetings we're going to invite the residents over to uh talk about how that's going to take place the John Anderson Park itself got hit twice with those two storms really bad we lost a lot of trees in there but one of them happened to be the one that was in the middle of that trail half of that broke off so we were going to cut that down anyway so we're going to move forward with that now that it's winter time either way um whether or not the trail goes through either way we're going to take those couple oak trees that are kind of a problem in there money saber yep it's on the ground now it's a lot easier to take care of yeah um and those are kind of our projects for 2025 so I'm going to finish up the shade structures the spring put the tops on those and you know so the East Bel Ice Arena the outdoor rank is open and ice is really nice on that um we are doing public skates too for if anybody listening or watches this wants to find out the times are going to be on the city website they usually do one a week uh typically on a Sunday evening they did quite a few of them over a Christmas break and there was a lot of kids there a lot of people were very happy to use that we don't charge for it right now it's free just we don't want our seasonal guys handling money there while they're working so um it's usually an hour hour and a half of open skate no hockey just just regular skating is allowed so no sticks or pucks are allowed you said the outdoor rink has been getting used any sense of how much it gets used uh I don't really have numbers on that it kind of depends on the weather too when it gets real cold there's not a lot of use there no but the ice is nice it's in good shape so yeah probably empty tonight yeah when I drove by there was a high school game there was nobody on the outdoor rank but it's it's pretty cold the parking lot was packed for the high school game do you say you have a time or not a time for it's always on the the changes it's kind of it's whenever we have unsold ice so if we can sell the ice then they'll sell the ice cuz they have to make money at the at the building but if there's unsold ice they'll try and keep it open for or even between games right yep sometimes it's in between rented out ice so it's it fluctuates so the best is just to check the City website car's been putting that on there as a Flash update um and you can call our Ice Arena to with Jake and let you know when he's doing all the scheduling on there he's doing a great job running that rank so far this year too good I think we sold more ice this year than we have in the past few years a lot of uh we sold a lot to Andover North Branch Force Lakes bought ice couple uh Elite teams have rented ice for it so good a little bit more advertising still planned for in there that'll help uh keep that going down there so and then they do have an ice rate increase that kicked in on January 1st too they bumped the ice already rates up a little bit more down there we're still way cheaper than everybody else south of us so they did a bathroom clean up and kind of remodel stay in there desirable now year and a half ago two years ago y everything's been painted uh we still have a list of things we want to complete down there we're kind of chipping away at those new uh scoreboard went in last year um and I feel like a few years ago didn't we put new heat new heat things up on the top there was a new furnace put in the locker rooms um last spring and uh there's been quite a bit actually new Lobby we redid the office area in there built a storage room for the youth youth hockey has been great they've got some great people on that board right now that are doing they're running the concession stand and they're making money there they've got into charitable gambling at MC's garage which is bringing in a ton of money for them there and I think that's only going to increase as that uh that hopefully that'll help kick back some money towards the building for some improvements too which hondai um what youth hockey group St Francis Youth Hockey Association okay y well and the St Francis High School uses it too correct yep and they have a couple teams that are still uh combined with Cambridge isan and and North Branch North Branch the girls on the girl side okay well the northern Edge I think is boys too one of them one of them dropped out last year I don't I just have to talk to my kids they let me know my biggest fear that was Finding good help for our uh ice rink attendants and we locked out we got some really great uh people working there this year that's great they uh they interact well with the public they clean up in there when they when they're asked to and in the past we had a couple that weren't always the best and we had a lot of conflicts with some of the parents and coaches and stuff so so is that high school jobs school kids high school kids college age kids kind of that's kind of what we have so far um one of them was actually employee for the city of Ham Lake Public Works Department he just wanted some extra money after hours John I I he was on our road commission way back in the day for a couple years you looking for a job now you know anything else look for opportunities to make that's all I can think of for for our from us I have um January 25th is the east fire department auxiliary breakfast I think it's from 8: to 11:00 at Station 1 and they usually have quite a few people there so you need to because there's not a lot of parking so lots of things planned and then I have a question too about our adopted Park are we fully up to date on that like do we have somebody in every park now no there's still some parks that are not have not been adopted so do we need to look at that again yeah if anybody knows to be looking we can set them up with a park it typically just involves a spring cleanup um and then they kind of go through and look at another set of eyes look for improvements in the park and any maintenance issues and stuff like that but mainly it's just once in the spring they go through and do a litter pickup and maybe do some weeding on some of the perennials and things like that helps out our staff is the community center on there I thought we were but I I I don't know if they are I'll have to check on that one let me know CU they should be for the beach main park there right because when we do when I do get people they get uh volunteer hours so is there a sign up down there I don't think there's a sign up we made signs for all the ones that we have I don't think we I don't I don't know if that one was ever adopted I don't think I've ever seen a sign and that's kind of an oversight and I apologize for that let me know for sure and I maybe was kind of just assumed that you guys would be down there doing it we you should get credit you may do a little bit more yeah all right that's all I had anybody else no nothing for me I guess the one little thing I can thr it there the Memorial Park we did have the tree up and again in our little blocked Circle our little circle where we plant flowers and um we did do bulbs for people that wanted to put them put them up and and we got Valentine's that are going back up if anybody wants to write a little Memorial on a Valentine and yeah we still got that going as well oh sweet is that a live tree or is that just it's a fake one it's pretty a fake looked at it I did dig it out of Bonnie's backyard close to real cuz it was outside all year is the ice Highway open across the channel oh they're starting to drive all over yeah I was out Sunday and there's about 14 in of ice okay wow good ice this year yeah I was going to say because there's been lots of people going through the ice and other cities so but we we're pretty good you know we don't have the current going at all there pretty spring fence so if it's cold it's going to freeze yeah then that cold weather with no snow really clear clear clear ice yeah our kids went out skating and I just have to share this was so cute they live right next door to us and they and we all have the lake in front of us and they went out skating and two of the little ones were just laying flat on the ice just looking down the water funny yeah they were just laying there on the ice for the longest time it was a beautiful day and had a good time good yeah unless anybody has anything else I'll take a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn I'll second motion's been made and seconded to adjourn all in favor say I I meeting adjourn wow this is almost one of our shortest meetings yeah and I feel like those