Thank you. All right. I think it's time uh we call this meeting to order. Sarah, would you like to do a roll call? Yes. Uh Laura Greenley Karp is gone today. Uh Sarah Zaraka here. Dave Andren here. Lloyd Gratrick here. Ben Hansen here. Ingred
Kohler here. Rachel Lucas here. All right. Uh would anyone like to make a motion to adopt the agenda? Make a motion. I'll make a second. All right. All in favor? I I the opposed. Any opposed? All right. Um would we like to
make an approval of the minutes? I'll make I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. All right. All those in favor? I I Any opposed? All right. We'd like to open the meeting to the public. Is there anyone here from the
public? Nope. All right. All right. Commission business. So, we'll start with a recap and goals. Well, we'll start with Ken first. Sorry, Ken. Yep. You told me he wasn't on here. That is all right. Ken will do an introduction. Thank you, Madam Chair,
members of the commission. Again, Ken Roberts, the recently started community development director for the city, and I'm here to just show you that there really is a person that basically goes with the name and that kind of thing. I work with Sarah
uh and Jordan and Chris in the community development department. They're my the cities, not mine. Uh fine administrative staff. They're doing a great job getting me trained and just here to introduce myself and I can
answer any real general questions. I think I was doing the math in my head. I think this is week six now with the city. Started April 28th. So, I'll take your questions. Otherwise, I'm going to listen a little bit and then duck out and let you have a meeting. Where are you coming from, Ken?
Well, do you want my going back to my parents or my work history? Work history, please. Okay. He's got a sense of humor. Yes. Well, well, no, let's not get that. Uh I started actually my work career as a planner in uh
Maplewood and that was from 1989 to 2008 and then I was the community development director in Mountains View for almost three years and then I was a planner up in Chicago County and the city of North
Branch. Actually in the county I did some park and trail planning. So that worked out well for those folks. And then I was a planning director on the city of Lake Elmo for again about 2 and 3/4 years. And most recently I was the
city planner at the city of Forest Lake right up until I started here. So a little little of this and that in the east metro area. Wonderful. Do you plan to attend um certain meetings or um kind of picking
and choosing the ones you come to based on topics or Well, planning commission I'll be going to all their meetings. As far as the other groups with the arts and you folks, it'll be more topic based. Okay. If there's something hot and exciting that I've been involved
with or Sarah wants more help with, I'll be here. But really case by case basis. Sounds good. Well, welcome aboard. Yeah. Thank you. Welcome. How can you help support Parks and Rock?
They will have to work with Sarah and let me know because I'm I'm still drinking through the fire or from the fire the fire goes getting on board. But uh Sarah, I'm 100% confident is a great leaison and if
there's something that comes up, we'll discuss it and figure it out and um see what can be done or might be done. But I I promise nothing yet. Welcome. Thank you. Well, thank you,
Ken, for attending. Yes. All right. you want to kick it off into recap and goals? Sure. So, um this is a section that um Laura had added in there to kind of just go over um briefly what we've
been working on and what is upcoming. Um as you all are well aware, um we've been working on CIP recommendations and that will be discussed um in our packet tonight. Um those final uh CIP recommendations will be sent to Ken by
the end of this week that he will take that to finance and discuss that um and we'll go from there, but we can discuss that later. Um so that's kind of where we've been and where we're going. Also, it looked like they included um the event schedule um coming up. Um I
noticed that some of the park and wreck ones were not currently up to date. So, I don't know where this event schedule came from, but the next one um for parks um is going to be uh Wednesday, June 18th.
There's Jazzer size in the park. Uh Ava noted she didn't need any assistance there. So, if you wanted to attend just to have fun and participate, you certainly can. Um the one after that would be Thursday, June 26th, which is
music in the park. Um, and that is one that she will need some assistance with or at least one person there um, as a representative. Um, I do have notes in here to have Ava resend out um, a sign up for upcoming events. Um, but this is
just a brief recap of everything that's going to be coming up. Um, otherwise that's all I have for that section. Awesome. All right. So, do we need to touch on any other recap or goals from anybody? Okay. All right. So, we can jump to the CIP recommendations.
Wonderful. So, thank you all for uh assisting in this and putting together the CIP recommendations. Um most of them were submitted in the packet and you'll see them all grouped together. There's four at the back of your packets that were paperclipipped um that didn't make
it into the publishing of the packet. Um, basically what the goal is tonight is for you all to take a look through them just quickly. We all know that what the goals were for each of these parks. So, there really shouldn't be any surprises in here. It's more or less do we agree with the numbers that are on
there and the timeline um what date we're or what year we're looking at um working on these. Um if we're all in agreeance, then I can pass it on to Ken and the finance team later this week. So, just wanted to see if this all looks good for everybody. Do you want us just
maybe the best way to just kind of walk through them one by one really quick and just highlight the total the year of the park? Um all right. So we can start. The first one in our packet is Casey Lake Park. This is the um removing the fence around the ball field and then
purchasing the soccer football combo install. Um planning for the year 2025. So something to happen this year. So how does everyone feel about that? or we can run through them quick and if you have anything we can also like
circle back on it. Um KBY Hills small park add-on. Um this was added by me. Um this is those uh additional um addition of those small park features we had talked about. So this is that spider claimer and a
spinning merry ground um in that open lot at Colby Hills. recommendation also for 2025. Um the bid on this was around 35,000 with the equipment and furnishing and installation. So some of these totals I I think we noted in some of
them could change based on whether public works gets involved um or not. Um then we'll go to the downtown open. One question. Yeah. Um, is the two on the priority of the years or what which year
are we talking about as far as like for each one of these? Uh, so you could do one, two, or three. So one being like the most critical, most urgent and so I don't know probably Rachel, you did this similar to me probably where you're like it'd be nice to have in this year so
we're going to send it out. But like as far as criticalness, like she's saying it's it's a three. So it's not going to be like dire need to the city if we can't get a soccer field in this year. Same with Colby. Like it would be great to get that in this year. I think that
park has a really great feature of the um the building and the pergola there. That's huge and it could really use some older child enhancements, but that doesn't mean this, you know, we it can afford to wait till next year if it's not. Thank you. Yeah, it it went one,
two, and three as you did the drop downs and just for the CIPs, uh there were different drop downs you could do and like like Sarah did say, one is like we need it like now. Two is we want to consider it, you know, very soon and
then three is it's always going to be like open for discussion kind of thing. It's not a real top priority. So, so the next one is the downtown open space. So Dave did this one. This was part of that McNight's master plan. Um,
estimate on that is 786,000 as of today. Keep in mind numbers can change a little bit as years and prices of stuff goes on. But this would be uh converting that open space on 7th to um the HGA rendering recommendation of the seating
area and kind of open space and those swings. It was really cool. So 2029 is when Dave put this in. um three since we still have some time on that and of course we have to kind of divide these out um those bigger Mcnite projects to break them up a little bit to see and
the reason I put a three is I mean we don't have to follow all the recommendations maybe there we in the next year or so go through some more discussion if we need to maybe we don't need the swings we might want something else so that's why it's kind of pushed
out so we have it on our radar but it's nothing that's really important So, are you saying that's why you picked the year 2029 or is that why you did Well, Lori Lori kind of pushed it back. I had it for 2028, but that's okay. I mean, it's, you know, if we don't have money
to do any of that, the park sits fine the way it is. So, yeah, it's Yeah. And I put it as a three. Okay. So, yeah, we had to stagger the years on all those Mcnite projects just cuz Yeah. Um I think I broke mine out into several different years. Uh the next one being
the the playground at Mcnite. So we actually what we did with Mcnite in general is broke out the whole development into separate little sections. So we broke out the skate park, the playground, the um the concrete kind of conversion area. Um I
did not include the parking lot as that's part of the greater plan at Mcnite. Um and then we broke out the the mini pitch because all of them kind of cost a they're a lot scarier when you look at the number all together. So, um, I set this for
2027. Um, this would be adding that playground at Mcnite. I think this will be a pretty crucial part of that as we think about, um, the ball fields usage and other kids at that place. Um, this is again part of the HDA master plan. I tried to break out based on their costing. This one was a little harder to
do based on um, what what we decide to do. We don't have an we have a rough estimate from HDA on this. Um, I think three thou 300,000 could be a low number depending on whether we do soft surfacing or what that play structure is we want. But if we do one big structure
and then something around it, maybe it wouldn't be as much. So I put 300. Um, again, that number could change based on whether public works does the install or not at a three. Um, this is the flex field at
Mcnite. So pushed that a year back from the playground. Um this is that mini pitch field that would be where the current T-ball field is. This is right off of Mcnite. Uh it's kind of near where all the brush and stuff are kind of piled there. Um this would be what
they're recommending as that kind of grassro turf. Um so lowmaintenance field, very expensive to put in, but the longevity of it lasts quite a while. uh the maintenance would be fairly low once it's installed and then it could be flexed between baseball or soccer and
give us another option. Uh we really think this is important because it's part of that greater master plan. Um so put that for 2028 because I don't think the urgency of that is quite as urgent as like the parking lot tearing out the pickle ball courts or the tennis courts
and then the playground which could be utilized right away. All right, Northwood Park. This was written by Rachel. This is um adding in that gaga pit and picnic table and
bench. So, uh recommendation of $6,000 for 2025. Those are part of that small park improvement um things we had discussed at the last meeting. Polar Park. Um, I think this one is in the back of the packet, so we
can go to this one at the end. Um, Tower Park, this is a recommendation. Thank you again, Rachel, for doing this one. 2,000 for that gaga pit. Um, as we were talking about adding those to a few parks. Is there I do have a question on that one. There was
nothing for annual ongoing maintenance. Is there anything I should put in there for that? I put on mine or when I try to do that one for housy, I put that like potential maintenance like taking
it away and storing it. Yeah. Um and like seasonal inspections and season like I said potential mulch chips. I have looked at a few other gaga pits since we did this last month and a lot of them do have like they don't concrete out or anything but they they lay mulch chips kind of in the middle. So maybe
it's a softer if it falls you it's I don't know. Most of the ones have we can't lay down sand any I don't think anymore. I I could be wrong. I don't think we can. It has to be ADA accessible. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. But but I
can at least put something general in there. That's what I put. I just thought I mean if we don't want them staying out all winter, they're movable. So we could put them put them away. It goes with the one for also Northwood. That gaga pit would have to be set up and then taken
down. So that would be a a maintenance item there. I will add that as another housing. Okay. Thank you. All right. So that takes us uh urban ecology is also in the back of the packet. So we
can flip back. Sarah, the other things I'm realizing maybe you're missing is I sent in all the rest of the MC McNight ones. Are they in the back, too? Yes. Um cuz I broke McNight into like five different pieces. So unless Laura sent those ones in which
were not in the whatever she sent in was what I got. I got third screen. Oh, okay. Cuz I did one for I did one for the skate park and I did one for the patio area at Mcnite. Okay. They weren't like 2025 or anything, but um if you
want to resend those to me, I can send them as soon as I get home. Yeah, I have. And then I mean if you kind of remember generally, we can discuss it tonight and then I can submit them with the rest of these. I can't remember the exact price, but I think the BMX I it was probably around like 300,000 as well
for the skate cuz I broke up the BMX skate park as one and then the concrete area was more like 700 thou. It was a lot. Um Okay. But also I I have them I can send them. Okay. And the housy one that you and I worked on and submitted
several days before was due did not make it into the packet somehow or did not. Uh right. And there was one that Dave did too. So I printed them. They're there. They're one cuz Laura said she thought she had it. So poor Howy has like three of them somewhere. We got it. They're
somewhere. Yeah. Here's one for the um Yeah. Sarah, do you remember uh as far as the skateboard park uh and that stuff, do you remember what year you were kind of because I to see that happen kind of soon. I looked at I
staggered them year after year. So I think I did the playground first, then the then the skate park, then the mini pitch, then the pavilion was last. So that would have been like 2029. And I didn't touch or make one for the softball fields yet because I figured we
got to get through this first increment and just live with the softball fields until we can get that other part with the cost. Um, so Okay. Yeah, cuz that would be my concern. I'd like to see that the skateboard. Yeah, I intentionally staggered it because I
didn't think we could splurge with the each one of those. I thought it's more doable that we can get one at a time. Yeah. Oh, I agree. But it's just Yeah. Yeah. I'll um Okay, so back to the polar playground. This in the back of your
packet. Thank you, Sarah, for running these. Um we weren't sure who had this one, so I wrote it really last minute, so if I have some things wrong, just let me know. Um I put this as a one critical for this year hopefully. Um at least ordering the equipment or getting the
funding approved. This is um for the tear down of the polar park equipment minus the swing set and merry ground and installation of new equipment. This one we did have a quote from creative recreational for
37,377 and then an additional cost of 22,254 for the installations. So again, if this is something public works or we're able to do a city community build, perhaps we can cut down on the cost of this by quite a bit. Um, this playground has met its end of
life, so it it is a critical we need to get it. We need to get moving and replace this as quickly as possible. Um, I just put mulch chips and mowing. I know sometimes we've done a border around the playground, but I think there may I can't remember. I don't know who has polar park, but if there is a concrete border around that playground,
if they put one in already. I think they did. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, I also mentioned in here, but it's not part of this quote, is that we'll have to have the ADA sidewalk accessibility from the road. Um, there is one at Polar Park now. Oh, great. Yeah. Oh, y when we did
whatever we did couple years ago. Yeah. Good. Well, one last thing we need to do. It wasn't in the quote anyways, so it shouldn't hurt it, but um urban ecology centers. This is one from me. This was um I listed this for 2025 as well out of two for importance. This is
where we were talking about putting some nature play elements right on the gateway trail and that n um urban ecology center as well as um a bench and um a bike rack. So or bench or table
sorry. Um this uh is something we have talked a lot about just having some place to rest and play for kids on the gateway trail. We have Rotary Park, which is nice, but there's no place for kids to really play right off the trail. So, I think this might be a nice element. I think um because this
equipment would be 26,000, it's kind of lowhanging fruit ability for um public works to kind of put it in in play. Not Not really any installation per se. So, then we have Third Street. So, um
Dave, you did this one, right? Yes. Um so, this is um part of that Again, the Mcnite Fields uh master plan at 1.1 million. Um this is
Yeah. Yep. So, they did the estimate for that um accessibility trail and then you put it for 2025. Yeah. I'd like to see that sooner than later. Um, I don't know how much clearing and stuff that public works could do to maybe, you know, maybe
get a plan from HDA that's a little more defined. Um, because it's mostly nature trails and stuff. Um, I'm just going off the recommendations that HDA gave us. Yep. And that's how I got my pricing.
Um, but because of the location and the new housing developments and stuff that are right around there, I I think this one should at least get started maybe this summer or fall. Um, I mean, we're already coming into June, so um, but
it's one of those things I'd like to see sooner than later just because of the the new people that are coming into that area. They need something that's kind of close and just something to reflect on. And being it's a brand new, it's not something we're upgrading. It's
something we're putting in place. So, I guess my one concern about that is this is the most expensive project on our list. And knowing how bad of shape Mcnite is in, I I don't disagree. I I'm I'm torn,
but I I I feel like nothing exists there today, but we have some that are really in disrepair that need help. And I feel like if we send this to council and say we want it this year, they're going to say, "Well, why? We have a playground that's 30 years old that hasn't been replaced." And I just worry if they see
this number, it's going to shoot down the ability for us to get these smaller projects done. Like, I don't I don't want to overspeak, but I know our finance director said that that number is not going to happen this year. I agree and I realistically you still have to go out for bids with this. You're not going to get anything this summer or
this fall out of it. It would definitely be something we'd need to look at for next year. The reason I put it for this summer is just so we're not pushing it way back and then it just gets overlooked and it keeps overgrowing, right? And I I mean I think what you guys have laid out here looks fantastic
and it's real. I mean having a plan and having the years in place is what's most important, right? we may have to move things around given um what type of funding we have and what the budget looks like, what type of levies we might need to have. We've already discussed, I
mean, we're in the conversation right now and it'll start in June. The main what does next year look like for um for our budget? What do we want our levy to look like? We've already started those discussions. How high we want it to be, how low or how low and how high we want
it to be. We've had some of those preliminary uh discussions. That said, this is where it's important of you. We had HGA out here. They gave us some ideas of the plan. So, how can we and David, what I'm following from you is
how can we take what HGA proposed and then what can we do right now to improve what we currently have? So, how can we put all of that together? Where can we afford that? Right. And that I mean the reason I went for this year I think it's
important that even though I know Mcnite is in rough shape um I mean public works is using it for storing trees right now and the other stuff. Um so this one I think it's something that's kind of
doable and the sooner we can kind of get something earmarked. It doesn't actually my book doesn't have to happen yet this year. Um, but because it's mostly landscaping issues, you know, cutting out some trees, uh, cutting in some
trails, I mean, that's easily done with, you know, some bobcats and a few other things. I mean, there's a lot of detail that goes to it, too. I mean, it's it sounds simple, right? But I know from building the vets park, I know it's it sounds good on paper coming to actual
things, but my whole thing is to get it at least on the radar saying, "Hey, we want to start this." And I'm sure public works has to take a look at it. Uh city managers got to take a look at some of it and say, "Hey, this is where we want to go." But being we were asked to try
to have something to develop this area, I think it's something, like I said, it doesn't have to at least start the project, but let's try to get at least the financing lined up if nothing else so we can start next spring if nothing
else, and start moving forward with this particular park. I say maybe what we do is let's get through the last one of this and then I think as a park board let's discuss the ranking of the HDA plan and decide as a group where we feel those rank so that we're all on the same
page. Um because I think we kind of have to be a unified unit and then Sarah can help us adjust the dates based on what we decide if that's okay because if everyone's like you know what hold on Mcnite we want to do this third street park then then then let's readjust those dates. Um, but I think we need to have a
bigger discussion about that because if it's one, you know, if it's a smaller majority who wants that, then, you know, we're spending a lot of time talking about something we can't fix yet. So, well, and financially, it's not a bad idea to bring it back to Dan and say, "All right, what's realistic for this
year, even if it's patching some of these littleer parks?" Yeah. Polar Park, some of that stuff, because we've already set the budget for this year, but what does next year look like? Yeah. Can we go out for bid? kind of like what we did with our um pickle ball courts. We got the funding for that, then we
brought it back that next spring. I mean, you've all been through this process. We do it again this year. This is our priority. We want it for this. This is for sure going to happen in 2026. That's what we want. Yeah. Then we bring it back to Dan and say, "Let's figure this out. Bring this to bring this council."
Okay. So, last one. Let's talk about real quick, then we'll circle back on the um kind of HCA plan. So last one is um this must be housy right just says parks. Okay. Um yes this is for housy
gaga ball pit in housy in the open space. So same as the other ones um $2,000 and then um seasonal take down as you wrote and installation as needed. So we do tower park as well.
Yes. I think I think I said tower park. Okay. Okay. I must have because we had the gaga pits at Northwood Towery and uh what Northwood did I say Northwood? Yes. Yes. So there's four of them, I think. Right. Yeah.
Okay. So um before I go back to the HGA conversation, any other thoughts on the rest of those that was listed? I heard a lot of 2025, so a lot of them were low budget. So hopefully we can talk about that to council. But um any other
thoughts? I would like to see some of the smaller smaller ones like Polar Park, uh the Gaga Pits at least for now. And what are we looking for 2026 on the budget now that with this? Well, we're we're going to start preliminary conversations in June. So to have to
know what you guys want for 2026 is pretty critical because um then with the preliminary conversations we're starting in June, Sarah can bring it right back to Dan, say, "All right, this is what they're talking about." Then from there we can see what it looks like putting it
in the budget. And to clarify for 2025, when Dan was here last meeting, he did give us direction to come up with a few things, small things that we could potentially do. Strong plan, right? Yeah. Um so so like the gaga pits that for 2020. Yeah. Even potentially like
ordering the equipment like in this year's budget, but installing it next year could be a possibility as well, I think he said. Yeah. Um especially since that that cost would be broken up. It wouldn't be 60,000. It would be the 37 and then we at least save on whatever
tariffs could or could not be by then. Um well and is if there's any funding statewise. I mean I think that's something that we should explore as well to see. Yeah. Okay. Any other thoughts on any of the other things? And we'll go back to
um HA. Okay. So, as a reminder for HDA, um I'm going to just write these down so it's in my head. So, we have several parts. We have the downtown park. Um we have Third Street. Third Street and downtown was the small little one
with benches and street was the nature and community garden. Right. Okay. Downtown is abundant right next to VFW. Yeah. Yep. And then we have We'll break this out. We have the playground at Mcnite. We have the mini pitch at Mcnite. What you didn't see, but I
promise exists is the skate park at Mcnite. And then you have the um pavilion area. So, if you recall, part of what they were going to do is build um build kind of a driveway which was going to be utilized for like food truck nights and then a more open concrete
patio with like structured pergolas that could be ro picnic benches could be rotated and out could be used for arts in the park, things like that. So, like it's more of a transitional we can use it for different festivals and things like that. So really, Mcnite would become Yeah, Mcnite would really become
more of our central uh park for some of these events like Arts in the Park and things like that because they would we would actually have a place to and food truck night. So that's what the pavilion is, but again um I don't have that in front of me, but I think I put that for 2029 or 2030 like as part of the last
part of the project. Um was my thought is don't do that before as nice as it would be to have those things that let's get the other things done first. So, um, maybe what's the best way to do it? Uh, can you say what priorities you like
or what what sort of ranking you would place all of these? Well, I don't want to influence anybody. I guess my thought would be as a commissioner, what would be your first priority? Maybe we go down and start with Rachel and say of these six projects, which one do you feel is
the most important? Um, you know, I just I want everyone to have their own voice. I don't want to I've got a loud voice, so I don't want to influence anybody. Um, I would say probably I think the downtown park
because it would be a whole new park. Um, it would be in the area where we're doing the the car show and it would encourage people to go to Seventh Street more often. Um, and then I would say you're saying the playground at Mcnite would be the you listed them in order of
how they should be done. Is that correct? No, I just mentioned them. No, no, I just mentioned all the options. So, u there's like six parts to that. Um, okay. To the bid, I guess, for this project. I would say downtown would probably be my first priority just to get some
action happening there. Okay. And then third street could go on the background because then we'd have the new downtown park and then the second step would be the first McNight portion. Okay. All right. Well, me I would like
to see uh and not we do have some money in the budget. So I think what we could do should do is uh kind of focus my priority would be get like the gaga pits and stuff in on the the four sites that we mentioned. If we could get the gaga
pits done that's in each one of those parks that's showing that we're moving forward with each one of the parks. Then my other I guess priority would be maybe looking at both Polar and Kobe Hills.
They're kind of smaller projects. I'm sure we have still enough funding there. And then from there moving on to like the Mcnite Fields. Um and then third street. Uh my thought is
downtown park could kind of wait right till the end because it is a park now. We have established trees. It's next couple years to have a lot of shade. Um, and then we may in time redesign what we
already have from HGA. Not to take away from them, but as time goes on and budgets change. Um, it's already developed. It's nice grass area. People do use it. They do sit out there on lawn chairs during the car shows. Um, so that
one would be in my opinion be pushed back, but I know Polar needs a lot of work in case uh Kobe Hills is another one. But like with the gaga pits, if we can say, "Hey, you know, we're looking at total of $60,000 to get all this
stuff done." And it's fairly simple. It's just ordering the parts for the Gaga pits and then having like words, put them in. So that way we're showing the public that, hey, we're out here. we're giving you something uh and while we're working on the bigger projects.
So, that would be my recommendation is to get a couple of these really smaller projects that are not going to take as much of our funding, showing that to our citizens that we work for, that we're showing that we're moving in our best
interest. Within the six, within the HCA, what would you rank number one and what would you rank number two between downtown, Third Street, playground, mini pitch, skate park, pavilion? I I think I would rank because Mcnite is such a focal
place, I would say Mcnite would probably take one. Third would be two. And the open park, uh, downtown park would be last. Okay. Like I said, it's already established. It's got grass. People can
sit there or relax and if nothing else in the grass or in some of the shades now that the trees are starting to develop. Um so I it's a nice open space as it is right now. So all right, I'm going to go to Ingred to keep us moving. Um the I would say of these six um I
think that we've been talking about Mcnite for several years and I feel feel like that is really in bad shape and really needs our attention. So I would put the Mcnite playground first. Um and
maybe even the mini pitch um as part of that. That might even be my second recommendation. I I love the idea of this third street park, but um um we do have, you know, the the ones that don't
exist yet um are are compelling in some ways, but also I do want to give some attention to the the things we've been talking about for a while. And that is, you know, like um um so yeah, Mcnite
would be my first one. And the mini pitch is maybe my second um priority of those six. Thank you. All right, Lloyd. Uh about the AG HGA, I would say uh Third Street first, uh Mcnite second. Are we going to be ranking the other
ones, too, like the playgrounds and stuff? I think we were kind of lumping the Gaga pits together. Polar Park is its own project, but we can go back and talk about that, but I Dave talked a little bit at length about it. I think our goal was to try to get those in this
year with the potential of trying to get those in this summer because the gaga pits are very reasonable task to get in. I think we as a group could assemble a lot of those and put them in the park. You know what I mean? So, I think I think we're all hopefully on board. If someone feels differently, I would speak up, but I think if we can get at least
polar and those smaller ones, we can we can also discuss Colby and uh urban ecology is maybe 2026 or something. And I would say uh Third Street and work work for downtown because there's so many new development in downtown.
All right, Ben. Yeah, I would go Mcnite as well. Um just agree that that's such in such derelict shape that we should start to prioritize that uh if we can. And then I would probably
opt for Third Street going down the HGA list after Mcnite after the prioritizing the playground. Um with uh downtown being number three on that list. I'm lumping all Mcnite
together knowing that we can't do all that at once, but I just think that needs to start to be a priority. And then completely agree, uh, Polar Park would be great to get a new an entirely new structure in there. Um, Kobe Hills,
too. And then on board with the Gaga Pit. Perfect. And for me last, I'm going to also vote number one, starting with Mcnite. Um, I just think I've even heard from people the minute I tell them I'm a park commissioner, they're like, "What is going on at Mcnite and why are all
those logs there?" And like, "Are you guys doing something?" By the way, those are going just to make it known right now. Good. Those are going to be gone within probably the next month. So, okay. I was like, there's there was issues with getting the wood chipper.
It's they're gone. It was a big concern of the community. So, it's gone. Good. I Thank you. I know that now. I would say my second vote is actually the downtown park uh or um the actual downtown lot. And the reason I say that is because the cost is lower. I think the impact would
be a little quicker, a little easier for us to get in. I think third street's going to take a lot of evaluation. I think it's not just taking out trees because they have to have a plan. They have in order to know the plan, they only want to take out a certain amount of trees, which means we have to do the design, the diagram. They have to plot it all out. I don't think it's going to
be as quick. I don't even think 2026 would even be feasible for it. Um, I obviously have been a big proponent of a downtown park for a long time. So, it's it's not to say with that I don't want that. I just think Mcnite is such a huge project that if we don't start chipping
away at it, then our ability to say that we paid this money to do this project, if we don't start making these little dents in it, um, and I think the easiest way to do that is say, okay, we're aiming for 2026 to get those tennis courts tore out, to get that parking lot
laid, to start the mini pitch or whatever that progress is. I think we need to be really diligent to start it. Um, but I'm torn because I get it because a third street or a downtown is going to be like one little project. Take it off or Mcnite is going to be a lot of checking the boxes. Um,
uh, could we alternate like 2026 start a Mcnite project and then 2027 do a different project and then 2028 do another Mcnite project and kind of alternate between a long-term and a short. I would say I mean as you're talking Mcnite I totally agree with you
and the way that HGA presented it was beautiful um that those little things you'll want to chip at. So you start I mean right now you're not going to want to lay a brand new parking lot down if we don't know exactly okay we're going to do this in year one we're going to do
this year two. I mean you're going to want to make sure you hit it's going to be a big project and all like you like you all said let's block it out. let's block it out in those, you know, next few years. So, we have it till we start 2026 and then we jump to 2029. We're
fully complete. Like, the whole park is done. But there's something major happening each of those years. Um, another big consideration, look at all the housing we have downtown right now. There's nowhere for these people to go. So, between Mcnite being right there,
but also a downtown park, I think that I want you guys to just keep in mind how many people are downtown right now. And yeah, we have a car show, but the car show is just here for the summer. What about the spring? What about the fall? That's why we were looking at that third street. That's why I think that I I hear
you. I hear you 100% on that. But also, it's you have to understand the amount of work that's also going to go through. We could argue this all night. I mean, it's it's not it's not worth it. Sarah, um I misspoke on the third street. I actually was thinking third street was
downtown. So, downtown would be my first Sorry. I also want to add there's nothing about Southwood on here. Oh. Um, and so I think what we need to consider is a um I don't necessarily think it we just
we need to make sure it's kept up because right now our community is saying, you know, there's a lot of um it's I can't think of the toporn. Thank you. There's a ton of buckthornne out there that how can we hear our
community by making sure it's kept up whether it's I think any council member in p new and past will say they kept saying bring the goats in bring the goats in um that said how can we come up with a plan to make sure that
buckthornne is uh kept up and we bring it down maintenance if we can just maintain it we don't have to chop it all at once but again kind of like the Mcnite plan Let's bite off a little bit at a time. And if it's, you know, we put two grand to it every year. I I'm
I'm throwing out a number. I don't know. It could be very high. It could be very low. I'm not sure. But let's consider Southwood Park in there on a continual maintenance. I that is one of my parks and I brought this stuff up a couple times and I was informed that public
works takes care of all the maintenance. We don't really there's no more task force. Um, as far as the city's concerned, cuz that was one of my concerns. And as far as the goats, I think it's a great idea, but we also have a city ordinance that says there's
no goats in the city. So, it's up to city council to say yes, we can put uh, you know, something in there saying temporarily, let's put goats out there. It's up to city council to put some of
this forward. But I was informed very heavily that that kind of stuff is considered maintenance for public works. I think didn't anyway. So I hear you. We've talked myself. I hear you on that. We've talked about it at council with
that said, what I'm asking right now, what I'm implying is that we should have a plan for continual maintenance. I wouldn't be wrapping in public works on that stuff right now. Let's talk about what does the maintenance look like for Southwood and leave it at that. So just
make a CIP for it. Correct. Okay. What does that look like annually? That's my that's my park, too. So I and I concur. We need to um I don't know this the county usually would come in and do a lot of that stuff. So I don't know. We can look into the county. A meeting with
Ron and then let's go from there. What does this look like? Ron will know who to partner with. I mean he has connections. Lloyd, are you okay working with that to maybe make a CIP for maybe not this particular plan year, but like so that we can get that on the list? Okay, let me learn. Sarah, I may be down
at your office having you show me, but yes. Well, yeah, let's do that and then I'll invite Ron to our next park meeting. Um, clear up some questions. So, we'll go from there. So, is this not So, this form is I'm just going to come
down. You can show me. Okay. You're going to tell me and I'm going to go We used to take care of like the mustard weed and all that other stuff. Um so it's trust me it's not forgotten from this park commission. I hear you. It's
not on this list and that's why I brought it up. Dave, why don't you um if you want maybe meet with Lloyd after we'll take it offline and you guys can uh discuss it and we'll get back to this because I know there's a Yep. a big basketball. I'll do it over. Okay. There is. So uh just I want to go back to this
really quick so that we can make Sarah's life a little easier. I think we need to go through this and say what is 2026, what is 2027? We've got six items. That means we've got six years at minimum. Keep in mind that just throwing one out doesn't mean when we're talking $1.2
million, that might be five years of our budget. Um I know we have a lot of money right now, but it's going to go quick when we're talking about three and $400,000 plus inflation plus whatever it's going to be in five or six years. So, and then keep in mind we have other parks and playgrounds that are going to
be out to date. Silver Lake, things like that sometime in that in that potential plan. So, we need to be really thoughtful about this um considering the numbers. So, 2026, realistically, a year from now, what do
we want to start tearing up and working on? Um I, as far as the rankings go, Mcnite had the most votes among members. Um a lot of you guys lumped it. I had recommended the playground first just because there are a lot of baseball games that go on there. So that would be
the first thing to be utilized. I think as a family member, I go to a lot of baseball games. Having playgrounds by any baseball field is like a huge relief um for that other child that has to go with those games. Um that being said, does everyone still feel that way? Would
you want to start aiming? And I'm guessing with 2026, what that means is the playground where HDA has it is where the current tennis courts are. So this means starting with the removal of the tennis courts. Um they do have the lot in there. Um but I'm guessing some
planning would have to go in to understand the size of the mini pitch so that they could build the parking lot accurately. Um so I guess for 2026, how does everyone feel about that? I'm good to switch my priority from um the
downtown park to Mcnite. Okay. So, we're saying 2026 is playground slash that budget money that's been thrown around a lot. That we did get the finance director to agree that that was maintenance and street work and not park board. Was the park
was a $500,000 parking lot. Got that off the park budget. Oh, yeah. Um so that would be playground. We're going to call it parking lot because nobody wants to come to a nice playground in a junky parking lot. Um, and then that would be tearing out the tennis courts would probably be the first step in that.
Um, so that we're talking uh 2026. And then based on what Ingred said, I'm going to throw this out there because I think this would um I don't think we want to wait too long for that mini pitch. Um, and I say this, but we want to give it enough time that we could potentially get grants. So, we
know Target and some other places like Minnesota United give grants if you're putting in any kind of soccer space. Um, that mini pitch is like $700,000. So, we need some help on that because I would hate to take that all out of the park fund. 2027's realistic
that we could give these Minnesota United target like a realistic date that doesn't seem like 50 years away, but maybe we could actually get some granted funding for. Yeah. Um, I don't want to leave, but I'm just like I don't want to wait too long to those grants and those fundings are gone. We know they exist
today. So, I don't know if you have an opinion on that, Sarah. I haven't found I haven't found any grants successfully. Oh, okay. So, um, but I also haven't had a ton of time either to fully research it. So, if any of you come across grants or opportunities that I can look into,
that's always helpful. Um, but I couldn't find any through Target, Minnesota United. There's a few that historically have done it and I haven't seen it for this year. We're moving forward, but if anybody knows that would be great and when Ken gets more on board
too. Um maybe we look the Vikings have a foundation as well and the Twins um if it's a multi-pitch sport field maybe we hit up all the Yeah, certainly a chance. There's there has to be some state funding too. I mean I that's how we got our um pickle ball courts in. So there's
um Ken's going to be a fantastic resource app. He's just getting his feet wet right now. Yeah. Yep. But how does that feel for 2027? The parking lot will look nice. Have a playground and then maybe a hole where the skate park is. Okay. And then 2028, now we're talking about McNight's kind of looking human
again. Um, do you guys want to continue on the Mcnite path, put in the skate park, waiting for the pavilion, or do you want to switch back to something else like the downtown or let's switch back to I think we should Yeah. split Mcnite up with the downtown park. Okay. Downtown park specifically, the one next
to Veterans. Yeah, cuz that's the cheaper one of the two, the easier one. And I feel like that's that's closer to the two new apartment buildings, I think. Okay. Yeah, it is. So, Third Street is a great option. However, one of the considerations we've always had
is it's not necessarily like adjacent to um like if you live in an apartment downtown, you want to walk your dog, you still have a little bit you've got a what quarter mile or more to like get up there where the downtown park is kind of in their face. Not that that's a dog walking big enough, but um could you
Sorry. For 2027, were you saying the mini pitch? Yes. Okay. for me. I would like to consider Should we do the skate park instead to have more of a an older kid addition? Yeah, I think the skate
park especially because we're adding the soccer goal field to Casey Lake this year. Um, I think the when you say the mini pitch, you're talking about the astroturf that that you can create
different types of fields on. And I think that's going to serve a whole lot of families um and people when you consider teams and all the people that come with teams whereas a skate park might serve. Yes, it's going to help
with the um getting cooler stuff for older kids, but um it feels like it's more of a focused sort of need than the pitch itself. um flex field. Any other thoughts? I
don't want to I that's between mini pitch and uh skate park can do multiples. It can do Yeah. Can alternate with downtown soccer Mcnite if we're going to do Mcnite first. That's the consensus. Then uh go down back to the
downtown open space, right? We're talking open space, not Third Street next to Veterans. Correct. Yes. We had that as 2028. Yep. Which somehow isn't that far in the future? No, it's not that far anymore. Okay. So, I hear you, too. I think the skate park would be unique for us, but I do feel like as an
enhancement to that park, um open space would serve more community members, but I I'm also torn because I like the idea of that, too. That makes sense. I'm good with that. Okay, so we go to 2029. So, we've got a playground, a parking lot, a mini pitch, a downtown park. Is this
when we go back and do the skate park and try to wrap some of some of Mcnite? Yeah, I think we try to finish up Mcnite when we're when we're doing the Mcnite and pieces. Is that going to be feasible? I mean, as far as that's when
finance comes in and well, all these things may change too. This is what we want to put in the capital improvement plan. That's going to it's going to be fluid. So, okay. Yeah. Got to be flexible. It's not may not happen next year. It may not happen. It might not
end until 2035. I mean, it just depends on what happens. I mean, if something is destroyed in Casey Lake, I mean, we're not going to leave that park sitting there looking garbage. We'll probably have to tend to that park first. So, act of God. We don't know what's going to
happen. So, it has to be fluid. So, can I can I just ask a quick question? So, Northwood is getting some attention in the next year or two. Yeah, it's getting the the little updates. the little updates cuz when we talk about uh the
downtown population growing so much and um because that was always our park we talked about that would serve that population. Um and now the third street project does as well and so does this little mini park. So, uh, I just didn't
want to forget Northwood when we're focused on these other two two. But as long as Northwood is getting some attention, I just want I want people who live in all of those spaces to know about it. Um, because it's kind of hidden. It's got that BM. I live right
there. Oh. Oh, you do? You see? Oh, it does get use. Okay, good. Yeah, it's a busy party. It's just not ADA. Yeah, it's not ADA. We're doing the Gaga pit. Um, a picnic table and a bench. this year and then I think it was on the
agenda for like 2030 to do a a bigger Okay. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I just didn't want Northwood to get lost in the shuffle. I appreciate that. I didn't want any of them getting lost in the shuffle. Yeah, that's right. Okay. So, at this point, 2029, we're going to
2030. Um, we have three of the main four components at Mcnite done. So, would you guys want to go to Third Street at this point? Okay. Sure. which is a big project, but will give us lots of years to kind of raise funding for it or decide if we have to do
bonding. Um, and that's another point that if they decide to go out on bonding, that could be a point where we could do more things at once depending on what they they do. So, that's why they need to know these things to decide how they want to budget. They may the city council may say, "We don't want to take four years. We want to do this one
big shove and then help us bond for money or something." So, all right. All right. So then that leaves the last one which is kind of the finale at the first phase of Mcnite which is the pavilion. Um so that would connect the um Legion
field to the softball fields to the um parking lot etc etc. Right. Okay. Do you know how the uh batting cages oh lays into this? Yeah. What is that? Well, so it exists and there's I
don't know all the exact details, but they're there. And uh there is a plan HCA did give us a plan that if for some reason the batting fields don't exist to turn that into a multi-use um rentable building for the teams to use, uh
potentially like updated concession stands, bathrooms. Um, okay. They gave us the square footage on it and they had suggested that that could be a very good space for that, but uh we weren't had no plans involved in that for this. Thank you.
All right. Does that help Sarah? Kind of line it out. Yes, that helps a lot. Um, uh, do we need to vote on that on their recommendations for the CIP? Um, doesn't hurt, does it? I don't think
it hurts. I don't know for sure. And then um that said, you can bring it to Ken. Dan, can we take a look at it? Bring it to council should we need it. But really, if you guys want to get the
um bag up hits moving, like some of those littleer things, let's get a vote on that, bring it to council, we have next Tuesday, and hopefully we can get that push through. Should I divide this vote into like 2025 items versus then
separating out? Okay. Okay. So, just before I we do a vote for this or someone makes a vote, gaga pits at the four parks plus the benches and chairs. So, the ancillary items, the small smaller items. The other three things
that were that I think council member or council members park members pushed for 2025 was um the polar park playground. um which we do have an estimate and a place I think my opinion would be let's let's ask for it needs it um the other
two were urban ecology and um uh the Colby so I think the total of if we include the uh labor provided by the companies we'd be looking at 120 for
just those or almost 100 maybe 110 for the polar playground, um, KBY and urban ecology, and then the Gaga pits about 2,000 a piece. So, and then the soccer net. So, we'd probably be looking at asking for about 130,000,
which we have a lot of money in our budget, so that doesn't feel that unrealistic. So my um experience leads me to say let's ask for all those things and then see what we get, see where we land um in hopes that maybe we can get a
lot of things done in our parks this year. So first thing is we need um to have a mot to make a motion and then repeat all those items. Um, I would like to make a motion to vote on proposing
2025 improvements of Gaga pits, picnic tables, benches, polar park update, KBY Hills update, and Casey Lake Park update. Case, you said Casey Lake. Uhhuh. Okay. Yeah. Would anyone like to
second that motion? I'll second that. All those in favor? I I I All those opposed. Motion heard. I just wanted to do that. Sorry. So now, do you want a motion for the other things? We have a timeline. I
wanted to um say something before we voted on the uh 2026 and afterwards for so we currently end at 2031. Are we supposed to be doing 20 32 33 34 and 35 as well or not at this time? If you had
items that needed to go that far out or ideas that need to go that far out. Yeah. Do we may do that? Yeah. Do we want to do Mcnite phase two for those years or do we want to leave them blank? I I know what he told us at the last
meeting is like we it doesn't mean we can't go back next year in 2026 and add things to this 10 year. So I'd rather not put I don't want council more than we have to already. Um but that's just me. I think we could, but I think it's like the Northwood conversation. I think there's a good chance in the next 10
years we're going to want to do something to Northwood, but then we can add it, you know, and maybe it overlaps with one of these years we have here, but we just want to give them a clear plan for the Mcnite, the HDA stuff since we spent the money to have that plan done and we want to see things. Okay.
Yeah, we already have like upgrades go back to Southwood for the 10-year plan, there was nothing in there. I know personally that within the next 10 years the observation deck will have to be redone. So will that that is
in there? That is in there. That is currently Yep. That one that's already in there. It's a couple years out. It's already in there. Y So we are plannings for some of that stuff. So what we're looking at tonight is just some of that stuff from the HGA standpoint and some
of the other stuff that we do know of. Correct. Yeah. So the finance director can take a look at the numbers and give us that's what he asked us. He's ability. Yeah. Okay. So if someone wants to make a motion, I make a motion to vote on the
CIP plan updates. have including 2026 Mcnite Playground and Parking Lot, 2027 Mcnite Pitch, 2028 Downtown, 2029 Mcnite State Park, Skate Park. Skate park.
Wowzers. Dream big folks. 2030 Third Street and 2031 Mcnite Pavilion. Any seconds? Second. Okay, Ben. Any discussion? Forgot to do that last time. All right. All those in
favor? I I. All those not in favor. You got to bang the little gavvel this time. Motion. So moved. Yay. All right. Were there any other that we should vote on? Uh, no. I just want to uh So, I talked to Dan, the finance
director, before coming here, actually. So, with the 2025 stuff, I'm going to submit that to him tomorrow. Um he's going to talk to Brian, the city manager, on what the next step should be. I think it won't go to council this next Tuesday, but it'll be the following one potentially possibly because it's
Thursday. They got to get the packet out. Um but if they have questions, I might be leaning on the folks that submitted the items to come and speak to some staff if needed. Um but I will be in communication with those folks if we need it. Um but we'll be in touch.
Perfect. I would was to put it on discussion for discussion on our council minutes for council meeting next week. Okay. I would like to make a motion since I should have had it done with
Rachel's that we consider $3,000 this year for upkeep in Southwood Park. For what? For what? You say that again. For the back for the Buckthorn general maintenance. I think we need to get clarification from public works of what
they are going to do and what they're not going to do because I had a lengthy conversation with Ron and a few others in the city of what they do and don't do. There's certain things now that um when I talked to Brian the task force is
no con they can make recommendations to this board but there is no official task force anymore as far as this city's concerned. So with that said, I asked all those questions and a lot of that just they told me falls in maintenance
with Ron that with public works. So I would like to get some clarification what they consider what they're going to do and what we can have volunteers do or outside because we used to have the the workhouse come in and do the buckthorn.
We've had men clubs do it. There's nothing I want to push off, but I would like to see or get something saying this is where we would like help from the park commission or this is what we're going to take care of. But I would like it in I would like it in place at least.
So that's have some money in place if this year because otherwise if we wait till June then that means we're going to be into July and August and so I think it's hard to make an approval if we don't know whose management's under. I would
like to make a suggestion that and I know this isn't what you want to hear about waiting till June but I think we take the time between now and the next meeting to discuss with the city with public works to understand you know because it may be a case where public works has the budget we don't need to
get it approved and we just need to kind of get a through line through public works to deal with the buckthornne this year and then your CIP that you're going to write may help us kind of protect us going forward but it doesn't sound like we have enough information tonight to vote vote on it to send to council because then we're going to get shot
back the same questions. I would say if when you and Sarah meet with about the CIP, maybe Dave could come too and you guys maybe there's a bigger broader meeting you guys can have about Southwood um and then bring that back to the June meeting so we could vote on it
um once we have more information. I can resend my motion. Yeah, we can do that. Ron, like I said, I'll invite Ron to the next meeting too so we can certainly discuss that as an entire commission as well. Yeah, let's do that. Let's Yeah, my guess is that they have a plan for
this year, but I would like him to come here and talk. Maybe we can put Southwood on the agenda for next month just so that it's not forgotten. It's top of mind. And then if you guys are able to do work with the city and get some information ahead of time so Ron's not like, you know, bombarded with our
questions. Ron's budget does include like removal of graffiti and things like that. So, it's not a bad I mean Ron should come to the next meeting just so he can clarify on some of the stuff that is in his budget like what would um
those kind of things. Okay. All right. All right. So, if that is good, we'll wrap the CIP portion of this and um thank you guys for your patience and then we'll move to the park passport program final presentation. Yes, Rachel can
uh speak on that. She submitted her final program proposal that is in your packet and so she wants to talk about that. Okay. All right. What's your show, Rachel? Um so this is pretty much a onepage summary of the presentation I
gave last month. Um, the only updates I made are that there isn't a midway prize based off of feedback. Um, that individuals would win the smaller prize of like the $3 magnet, button, pin, what
have you. And then um everyone who you know submits and goes to all the parks and fill out fills out the passport um is entered for a grand prize of like a city t-shirt or baseball hat or something like that. Um I broke down
numbers of annual cost based on number of participants including employee time based on number of participants but otherwise pretty much everything's the same. Does anyone have any questions for me? Great. Looks good. Looks great. Do you
want to vote on that? Um, and a recommended starting number of participants. I had recommended starting on the lower end. Um, just because we aren't sure yet of what the participation would be like and I don't want to invest. I just wanted to get like Yes. Yeah. I just wanted to show
like say this just goes blows out of the water, what would be what would the damage be on the wallet? Absolutely. Yeah, 100 participants. Sounds great. Okay. So, as long as we're in agreeance of of that and moving forward with uh this program, I can get working on it. But I do need a formal recommending
vote. N I'll make a motion that we accept the PA park passport program proposal. Am I allowed to second it? I second. You could have even made the motion. Okay. Too much. Any discussion?
All those in favor? I. All those opposed. So moved. I need to say a dollar amount associated with the motion or not. Did you say them were participants? Just I did not say anything. I just said I'd like to accept the proposal.
Um 100 maybe just say yeah I know where it is with 100 people. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Um yeah, I would uh like to propose that we um accept the program proposal up to 100
well or more um participants. Yeah. Seconded. All right. Doing it again. Yeah, we got to go around. Okay. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. All those opposed? So moved. Boom. Do that twice. Thank you, Rachel. Thanks for
your time on this. It's exciting. Yeah. All right. A great way to get people in the parks. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. Yeah. And easy. All right. Exactly. On to our last topic here, commissioner discussions. So, any topics from your parks, uh, or anything you want to mention as your liazison, we'll
start reverse this time with Ben. Um, if you have anything from your parks you want to bring up, just that unfortunately nobody showed up for Casey Lake Park cleanup day. So, I was cleaning up all alone. But well, thanks for doing that. It was cold, so Oh, oh,
that was a a bad weekend. Um otherwise, none. But that seems a little Do you think it was advertised well enough? Um that seems It was on socials and it was on the the weekly newsletter. So, okay. I think I think it was bad. I know. It
was like 45 degrees and windy. So, it was not scheduled, I wouldn't have done it. All right. All right. Well, that's disappointing. Lloyd, I will just follow up with the Dave and the Southwood. What are we calling it?
I'm I apologize. CIP. Thank you. CIP for Southwood. Okay. It's busy. Southwood is busy. It's getting busier. Yep. Good. But the city's doing a nice job with maintenance and so forth.
Um, I drive past Kobby Hills almost every day and I never noticed but in that open space there's actually a bench there which is great. So I thought when we if we get that new equipment in we've already got a bench so save some money right there. Um nothing else to report
um from my parks. Is there excuse me is there a rest what do they have for a rest area or was it built into Colby Kobe? Oh it's a beautiful pavilion. Was it was it built into the No, it's just a big concrete slab and it's like lit and
uh there's I don't know probably has like six tables restroom. There's a portaotty portaotty. Oh, okay. Um uh Silver Lake uh we had a a good turnout for our cleanup because the lake association is really involved. Um and
uh it was different than other years. In other years, we've gotten in the lake and raked things and stuff, but we were told by public works um that we didn't have to like rake up small sticks and things like that. So, um there were a lot of people who turned out and uh it
didn't take long really to like make sure all of the trash was picked up and then a couple of us went over to Dorothy and kind of looked over there and it wasn't wasn't bad at all. Um the one thing that I it that occurred to me after this weekend um Memorial Day
weekend is such that park is so heavily used. Um it is just like one block away from me. It's like picnic city uh for three days, three straight days. Um so it's wonderful. There are so many families and so many picnics and
everything going and volleyball and uh that park gets so much use. And I I was thinking, "Oh, I wonder if we timed the cleanup wrong." You know, does public works have any feedback on like uh it it just seems like it gets so heavily used
over those days. Is there a lot of cleanup that happens after that? Not that I have heard specifically, but I can certainly find out. Yeah. And get some feedback on that. Yeah. Okay. Um maybe we and maybe and maybe it's just
make sure there's extra bins uh you know garbage bins on that weekend. It's just uh remarkable every year. I I'm I kind of surprised by it but I shouldn't be because it it's every year. Um and I I just think it's it's great um that so
many people use it. Maybe as you see fit, we could have little I I could come down there and help you if we set up a day in the summer or whatever if we thought that we need to go around the the park after afterwards. Um yeah. Yeah. Sometime in the if you say, "Oh,
you know what? We need to get go by go through this again and I'll see what um I'll see what if there's any feedback from um Ron next time." um he's coming to our meeting. So, I'll see if there's any kind of feedback, but uh otherwise,
it just it occurred to me that um there might be some extra cleanup that has to happen after this particular weekend. Okay. So, all right, Dave. Uh park cleanup at Southwood went really good. We had a handful of people show up. Um
it matter of fact there's a couple that left from our park and went up to Silver Lake and vice versa. Um but no it was um a very clean park. We actually total we got less than one full garbage bag from
garbage. There was only one where somebody had said well somebody didn't pick up as their dog but other than that everything was picked up. Um then I cleaned up a lot of brush around the the observation deck. Um public works was
out. They actually gave me some clippers and so I went and did that. Uh and within an hour after that they were there, picked up all that brush plus the garbage and on their way they went. It was a huge success and a lot of people
had commented how clean Southwood really is for being a nature preserve. So, um, and that's all I got. All right, Rachel. Um, no updates on the parks. Um, when I showed up for the cleanup at Northwood,
um, city councelor Troy Woods had shown up early and he'd pretty much combed through the park already and there was very little um that he found. And then public works actually showed up and made sure we had enough supplies and then mentioned that uh most of the parks were
pretty clean and that everyone was heading to Silver Lake, but it sounded like Silver Lake was kind of covered. So then he and I ended up cleaning um Mc Knight between 11th Street and 36. Oh. And that was a lot of trash that we collected there, which isn't a park, but
we cleaned it anyway. So, you know, it's funny. We went over we went over um we went over to help you uh to uh I when we were kind of done over at Silver another or one of the park or one of the lake association people and I went over to
look for you in Northwood because we had heard that maybe you were the only one that showed up on that day or you didn't have a lot of helpers. Um and so we kind of drove around looking for you but didn't didn't see you and that explains it. Yeah, I think I was there less than 30 minutes and we went over to Mcnite.
Okay. I know we usually pair that with like Earth Day and it was later this year, but hearing Ingred's point, it might be worth revisiting like when a good time to do park cleanup is like yes, it's nice that it kind of ties in with Earth Day, but the weather's always
iffy um to say the least. Uh because it's when we did in April, it was always snowing or cold or something. And maybe the usage of the park since it's heavier in the summer is maybe park cleanup should be midsummer or fall or some sometime I don't know what a good time would be but maybe that's something we
talk about at some point of maybe shifting when that that should be the weekend after the 4th or the day after the 4th. Yeah. Yeah. That's another one like you guys. Yeah. Right. We did hear from public works and Ava that public works had already combed
through the parks really and they've already mowed. Okay. By the time we were doing the cleanup, they'd really gotten the brunt of it. So, yeah, either earlier or later at a peak. Maybe that's a question for Ron, like when would an ideal time be? And is it is it before they start mowing the parks? Is it March
or is it, you know, we just put on some gloves and coats or um Okay. All right. Um, reports from staff. Yeah, I just have a couple brief things um, from public works. So, they fixed uh, they were able to get the
warranty fixed on the pickle ball court um, at Howy. So, that post is fixed. Um, still working with the vendor to get the wind uh, screen installed there, but that is still in in motion. Um, as noted earlier, the ash trees have been removed
at Mcnite um, which is great. So, they're off the tennis courts. Um, and then if you haven't seen, the Silver Lake Improvement Association is planning a treatment for the algae um, in the lake and around the beach areas and the fishing pier later this week or early
next week. Um, so signs will be posted for that as well. Um, but one thing that I did want to ask, Ava had asked me, if you have rough idea of numbers of people that you think participated in the cleanup day, what would you estimate
that to be at your parks? And did anybody get any photos? She asked me that, too. But okay, no photo in Troywoods helped. Okay. One person. Okay. I think we had Southwood had at least six. Okay.
I'm going to say at least a dozen at That's great. And then Ben. And Ben. We could recreate a photo of Ben doing something probably. We could ask his wife maybe to take an action shot in the center of a snowman. Yeah. Just
with a one of those sticks like getting trash. For what it's worth, Casey was very clean and I was able to help a young boy who sadly was fishing and got the hook stuck in the back of his head. Oh gosh, that seems really important.
Yeah, I was there at a good time. You were meant You were meant to be there. Gosh. Yes. Um, but that is it for me. Okay. And I confused the commissioner discussion with the reports from commissioners and park leaison. So can we scratch that since we already did
that? Yeah, if we already Well, only thing I could add is Southwood and I mentioned last time couple of the benches should be addressed. Um, yes. And I did note that to Ron, so I'll bring it up again as a reminder. Okay.
All right. So, it's just adjournment if Oh, and um the next meeting June 23rd, is that at Casey Lake or are we going to be here? I forgot. We were I thought we were doing summer park meetings. It is. Yep. It's at Howy. Is that 26th? Maybe.
It's the um not the 23rd, but maybe the 25th. See, I Yeah, the 25th. I have that wrong on on here, so I will get that changed. 6 o'clock 6:30 normal time. Okay. Oh, for the Okay. So the park the so we'll be at housing but the community
will be inputting like we used to have a half hour for input. Uh they'll just be invited to speak during the public portion. Oh okay. Y All right. Okay. Would anyone like to commission? Can I make a motion to adjurnn? Second. Any discussion? All
those in favor? I So adjourned. Awesome. Thank you all. Nice to have on you.