##VIDEO ID:ULAtbRxjvB4## e just rolling do it rolling all right I'll call the meeting to order January 22nd 2 Eric can you do a roll call sure uh Lloyd Greek here Laura Greenley karp here Dave andren here Ben Hansen here ingred kler here Rachel Lucas here and Sarah zarka is gone today and Cassidy schwe is here seeing we got a quorum uh need a motion to adopt the agenda please I make a motion Dave makes a motion I'll second that ingred seconds any discussion all in favor say I I I all opposed approval of the minutes of November 20th I make a motion Dave makes a motion second I'll second Ben seconds all in favor say I I all opposed anybody from the community nope I'd like to welcome Rachel Lucas to our park and wreck tell us a little bit about yourself oh jeez doesn't have to be long just short and sweet um so I've lived in North for almost 3 years now um the sense of community I've gotten just from my immediate Neighbors From the City events activities um I found it really impactful and I wanted to participate and make a change um personally I like reading and gardening and I have a cat and dog and I like hiking and good yeah thank you that's me got any questions along the way just hauler okay we we'll walk your right through it okay sounds good all right so we're staying in order yes okay election of officers need a motion I make a motion to leave the officers that we have in place as as it is I actually would really like the opportunity to be the chair and experience what that role um is like and allow somebody else the opportunity to be the vice chair okay uh you got a motion okay so hold on we got a do we have a second on Dave's motion okay I was going to second because you're going to second no no I was because for many years we've just kind of kept it the same yep but um after hearing Laura say that I'd like to explore okay more so we don't have a second on Dave's motion correct correct okay do we have another motion that would be go ahead I don't think I can motion myself into okay yeah I would so ingred she can't officially make the motion hold on but we can we can allow people to discuss discuss if that's something that you all would be interested in exploring yeah hi yes hold on both of you so can while we're here can you define what the roles are of chair and vice chair cuz you're Laura I'm Laura Laura you said you're interested in being chair and someone else Vice chair yes so I'm currently chair and Lloyd is currently or I'm sorry I'm currently Vice chair and Lloyd is currently chair okay I've been in this role for three four three years and you've been in this your role forever yeah for a long time um but that's okay yeah and so the roles really are the chair is in charge of facilitating the meeting and holding us to Robert's Rules and making sure we're following um the protocol and approving the agenda kind of just like also presenting to other commissions and councils um Vice chair supports that work as well okay and runs the meeting in the absence of the yeah yep L do you have uh any feedback I'm I'm fine with it I'm I've always been ready to step down and see what it's like to be over there are you interested in Vice chair no I'm I think I'm going to just take a break then so then of the three of you is one of you interested in Vice chair I actually was going to in um nominate Sarah who isn't here oh to be the vice chair okay not that Sarah a different Sarah yeah there yes the Missing Sarah is the missing chair right okay okay and she's been on the commission for longer than I have is she okay with it I or do we wait till uh do we wait till February or could could we nominate now and then check in with her in February and approve then not keeping it easy I mean protocol is that you you elect officers here tonight okay you know if if um Sarah reached out to anybody or to staff to say if I was nominated I'd love you know make her intentions known or in writing or in phone or whatever then you could use that or you could you know point to that information but um in her absence if she hasn't spoken to our staff Sarah um then you would move forward with whatever motion that the body deems ready okay is anybody else interested well I would if if uh laa wanted to be chair I would nominate Ben to be rce chair myself I'm I'm like the newest one here in not the newest one yeah I I don't know if I'd be ready for that okay otherwise I'd leave my nomination go okay did sah say she would be interested and if we you don't know I have a text out to her I don't know if that would be valid or not it would if she got back to you and if we don't feel it we'd have to do it in SE in February right you can you can you can nominate somebody who's not here you can vote them in okay and then if she comes back and says I don't want this at your next meeting you can change it oh yeah we could do that okay I'll make a motion to to have Laura be our chair and um Sarah Radka the our vice chair there a second yeah do I have to say second yes second discussion all in favor raise your I I feel that um with your experience as chair um I think we with the understanding of the other commissions and stuff um you would be my like I said my first um motion was for to leave the officers in place that there are now um so with that said I I don't want to just um put it out for a vote but I I would prefer to see the parties stay as they are I still got to link I still got to vote on the motion y yep you have a motion and second on the table have a motion and any other discussion okay let's use we're allowed to have more discussion or we have to you don't have discuss yep you want just clarifying no that being said I'll I'll look for ra hands raised all in favor of the motion Sarah you read it please but that's okay the motion is for um Laura Greenley karp to be chair and Sarah Zara to be Vice chair for 2025 and that was from Ingrid and there's a second too yeah from Rachel and second from Rachel Rachel seconded any more discussion all in favor raise their hand I all opposed for two two two okay motion passes yep motion passed okay next events for 2025 Eva hello everyone I'm going to wait there we go okay so I am the communications and uh community Outreach coordinator which means that I have the joy and privilege to run all City events um and so as both Communications and events I'm here to kind of set expectations for 2025 and kind of come to you uh with a um ask for more help so um before we get to that um slide please I would like to hear a little bit about you um specifically why you are on this commission and why you are passionate about the parks so maybe you could start with Ben sure uh so I joined last December not the one that just passed but the one before I've been living in North St Paul for almost 5 years and I just think we have great Parks love to spend time there with my family uh I like to be outside all four seasons and we're really privileged to have the parks that we have I live really close to Casey Lake Park so I spend my most time there but love to visit the other ones too so want to do whatever can to help improve and get the community engaged in what's happening in our Parks amazing thank you um I have lived here for eight years and I am not only passionate about the parks but I love working with the community and finding opportunities to connect with them um so that is what I what I bring amazing uh I've been here that's the 89 30 some years 35 years with North St Paul I been on the park commission for for about 15 15 years lots of lots of things have changed in the positive direction since we uh first started with no agendas and now we're moving forward in a very positive direction amazing I'm Dave andran uh I've been living in nor St fall for pretty close to 20 years now um I had ties that went to this city way back in 70 or around 80 when we pulled the tracks out of North St Paul they used to go along 36 uh I was one of the people that did that so I've had ties with North St Paul since then um I'm on the this is my second time around on the Parks Commission I served back in the day about seven years ago is when I left and I served for almost 8 years prior to that um had several people in the community asked me if I would try to get back on the park commission and here I am so um I'm ingred ker I've I've been a a resident for 28 years I want to say my husband um was a lifelong resident um so anyway um I became interested in I live live near um Silver Lake um a little bit off the park and um I became um activated when um the beach uh we had a public u a guarded Beach um for many years and my kids learned how to swim there and well several Generations learned how to swim there and um there was a budget cut and suddenly there were going to be no lifeguards down at the beach which just really um made several of us kind of you know alarmed um and uh we were worried about that and just kind of started this ground swell of um support for you know what can we do how how can we um go to City Hall and complain about this but also try to help out and so the silver L Splash was born so I became one of the um uh organizers of an event that for 10 or 11 years um raised funds down at Silver Lake um for you know for lifeguards and that's not how we do things anymore um and the splash went away um during covid 2020 was the 2019 was probably the last year of the splash but um uh but it it was a it was a huge event um and uh a big undertaking um but uh yeah that's how oh and then because I became so active uh Terry Furlong said well you should be on the park and wreck and so that was 2000 I don't even remember I've been on the park and wreck a long time that was probably around 2010 11 um yeah and the event went for 10 years yeah that sounds about right um 10 11 years and so um here I am um so that's that's how I became interested in the first place amazing thank you um so I've lived in North St PA for a few years now and this is the first place where I've actually felt a sense of community both um immediately with my neighbors but then wider spread as a larger Community as the city um I found a lot of that was through the parks and wreck events I felt like that was a great way to meet local neighbor people um and I found that really encouraging I wanted to help build the community both for myself and just for the city um and then I think the parks are really beautiful I think it's a great thing to have people getting out a nature more I think it's beneficial for people so that's why I'm here amazing thank you all I think that this is actually you know hearing each of where you're coming from is a really good branch of um you know parks and also events you know one of I'm hoping one of your goals is to get people more into the parks enjoying nature outside um and events are a great way to do that so slide please um so I'm here to ask for your help in running events smoothly and effectively so um I'm juggling two different roles during events I'm both you know coordinating the event but also taking photos and videos to promote North St Paul and what we're doing um and so because I have to be in multiple places at once I need a dedicated team of people behind me who know what's happening what needs to get done what's going where who have my back back if something goes wrong or just to make sure that everything's okay um and so um I'm asking for your support and help to execute these events and because um these events align with your mission and vision really well um I hope that it's not too big of an Ask um and so therefore strengthen our community by bringing really awesome events to them so um slide please so my ask is that um I'd love you to be proactive with working with me um on generating new event ideas and plans and ways that you can get involved um that means engaging in meetings and responding to emails reaching out with new ideas if you have them um I would like you to be aware engaged and involved in planning before the event um which will basically just be communicating with me um signing up for a task when I ask and attending pre- meetings um which will be communicated but most of all um having your physical presence there on the day even if it's just background help um would be super appreciated so volunteering um for tasks at the event um and then a follow-up is just providing feedback what you think went well what you think can be improved so that we can always be making these um events more streamlined and just better for everyone so slide um so my over all overall expectations are to respond to my asks um and emails so no know in advance what you're doing um being physically present at a minimum of two events per year um and improving the events by giving feedback so um because our events are pretty spread out I've uh given Sarah thank you um the event schedule it is currently changing as I'm booking vendors and that sort of thing but this is the rough uh event schedule for 2025 so you have it prein advance to say okay um when can I be here maybe what are my two parks events um you'll see on the side where there it says Parks um and kind of plan out where you can help so um you can do the slide so uh this is just the kind of brief overview look um right now which some of this has changed since um since I made the slide deck um but we have for example Fire and Ice coming up next week and so um it's going to be a really great event where um we're going to be serving free hot chocolate in Casey Lake while people are outside skating um and basically I'll need one person to kind of cover the drink station probably for one hour um the event runs from 5 to 7: or yes uh 5: to 9: sorry and so maybe someone at 6 o' um could come and uh just watch the drink station while I run around and do some photos so that's a good example of you know the kind of asks um that I'm looking for um if you have questions I can take them at the end of this presentation um yes so if you could do the next slide please um so here's another example so I'm not asking to you guys to take back you know planning and executing and running these events um I'm comfortable with this role um but I can't handle everything like I did last year so an example of this is that um last year we ran a Kung Fu Panda 4 movie night at housy Park which went really well um and except that I was the only person running the event I was the only staff person and there was no commissioner to back me up and so I was tasked with watching the bathrooms in housy park and saw that there was a child holding the plug that everything was powered by the movie the projector the speakers everything and he's holding the plug and so I ran to go and make sure that he didn't unplug and while I was physically guarding the plug a community me member went into the uh housy Park and started removing chairs from the building so after dealing with that situation went and talked to a very angry uh resident and so it would have been really helpful to have backup in that situation especially um being you know uh alone at night um so basically my ask is that I'd always have uh one backup person at least um some of these events you know in this lineup um we'll have other SE staff around and available obviously not all these uh events are up to you A lot of that is part uh arts and culture and City staff and different people um but for the parks um Department events um I'm asking that you be present so um my final thoughts awesome um is that I'm really excited to work with you guys um I really love City events and I think can make something really awesome happen um and um basically my next steps for you is that um I will be sending out a Google form uh tomorrow basically um just getting kind of your uh your first thoughts look at um the event schedule when you think you'll be able to volunteer um and so I have a general idea of who to reach out to um at that time um but I will will be communicating throughout the year basically saying hey we have an event coming up in month two months I need this is the exact job requirement this is what I'm expecting of you um and also uh I would love if somebody could come and help me on February 7th which is a Friday um for one hour so um I'm more than happy to take questions or comments concerns um so we can work together as a on a as a team on this what was the time frame on the February 7th um just I'm hoping for one hour oh just one hour within that yeah all right yeah I'll do it amazing thank you I appreciate it um I'll follow up with tomorrow with an email and it's at Casey not howy I noticed yes um because yeah because uh we had to take out the we can no longer do a ice rink at howy um because they remov the baseball time and because of ADA compliance so Rachel you're the whole 5 to n or just not the full thing I can't do the full thing but I could do like a 2hour hour I I can be at that one too as just another set of hands awesome yeah I agree it's very important we have at least two people for sure any event yeah safety yeah I appreciate it yep do you have the Salvation Army doing the hot chocolate for that event no the city is running that I didn't know that Salvation Army did that in the past it's all it's all good um yeah so that as you go yeah exactly so yeah we used to run that at howy um as like a little neighborhood thing the fire department would manage fires Salvation Army would do hot chocolate um and then we would have uh people inside monitoring the bathrooms and then just kind of like floating around and we also had for a couple of years like a samore station um so people could roast there as well that's just a little background knowledge on that event yeah no that's great thank you yep yeah I'll chat with Sarah about if we're going to Pivot or if we're going to stay with what we have I I don't I don't think you need to Pivot that was me that was me just saying that's a resource and usually they're really excit like really on top of it and want to be a part of it okay and it's an extra task that could be off of your plate um so that you could have more people floating awesome thank you any other questions concerns no I'll I'll right now I'll sign up the park cleanup amazing okay yeah something uh I noticed last year we weren't doing any work we used to do a park cleanup and there's not much to it um we would just kind of be most used to be all the lia on for the parks would be at their Parks uh handing out trash bags and stuff like that and then once we're all done Monday morning Public Works would just come by and pick up the trash bags that we had so um but yeah I'll help out in whatever way you need for Earth are you planning on a Tuesday um here's my may I make a suggestion yeah we we used to do it on the Saturday before closest to and you may want to get a hold of the uh track coach at North because in the past they have done cleanup as a requirement to be on on the track team and he has held uh food and so forth now they've got a new coach now because the other one retired but you might want to reach out and see if they have any plans to do that cuz that would be some more resources for you that's a great suggestion I have another um bit of feedback too um as the liais on to Silver Lake um there is a very active Lake Association and I it's very important to coordinate our cleanup with their cleanup because sometimes that is a uh not the same date and then I find myself going wait the cleanup isn't until you know yeah I'm thinking parks and they're you know so so there is a a little wrinkle to work out there um just to to maybe check in they might even have it already set yeah um but I I would love to see those two dates being the same yeah not conflicting somehow or because then I'm I end up being torn we got to do you know which which one do I show up to or both or I often can't go to both so yeah are there other Lake Associations that we need to coordinate with there's just the the one I'm aware of Silver Lake okay yeah Lake Association you may want to do the 26th we're looking at the calendar 19th is uh Easter okay so we can change it from the 22nd to the 26th um I think that that way we have more people who are able to go out and and pick up even a little bit of trash at the parks so yeah if we can change that dat to the 26th for sure yeah that's actually one of the events that I'm a little bit more hands off on that's more Sarah and Chris coordinate that one um Sarah is the parks commissioner and then Chris as the P the person who's running the recycling and the garbage kind of programs um but this really good information that we will definitely take into consideration yes so is that a first is that it for sure like we should plan on it being the Saturday I think to ing's point we should double check with Silver Lake and I can um send that whatever date we come up with Y out to the commission get a being it's you know it's early enough if they want to coordinate their stuff with the city's stuff yeah if they haven't done theirs either yeah we can certainly work with them in the high school yeah yeah absolutely we'll get them involved we have a contact there okay so just to clarify the park events that are specifically parks are fire and ice Parks clean up the spring 5K which is new the two or three sorry music in the Parks two music's in the park yoga in the park Zumba in the park jazzer size in the park excited for that um movie in the park adult movie in the park kids and then Holly Jolly night yes um it sounds like a lot the M the music in the park um we don't typically need a commissioner there it kind of runs by itself and the arts and culture commission will um have probably have their art cart there so the music in the Parks not super needed the one is at Silver Lake um I've seen your photos of you know the splash and stuff like that so we're moving it from Casey to Silver Lake and having a steel drum band so having a little bit of like a beach theme that's interesting the very first year of the splash I hired a steel drum band amazing great minds um yes so um basically we'll take it as it is the exercise in the Parks um I'll be there the whole time I don't anticipate needing another commissioner as it's an hour and I'll be there taking photos and it's during the day so um it looks like a lot but don't panic um we'll take it one step time and AA I'll take also the movie in the park too one with the kids I'll help you out with that yeah so go g would it would it be helpful for us to sign up now um I can't keep it all in my head so um we will send out I think maybe email and SLG Google a sheet okay whatever you works best with you we put we put Starwatch to sleep for a while if not for we yes because M okay Mike had mentioned he was getting too pooped out to do this and he had mentioned to take a break and numbers are going down so yeah he reached out to me personally and was like I don't think this is a good idea which I listen yeah um can I clarify music in the park so I see um the three at Casey that's like oh I I see music in the park and then there's a three in parenthesis Casey Lake um 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. um so that was kind of like our schedule before but then I also see are there additional musical events other concerts happening in other Parks is that what's happening um sorry um the that's a bit of a working document so if I made a mistake yeah um so the first one is the Children's Program it will be at housy Park okay um the second one one which is the Silver Lake okay and the third one which is the adult band in August will be at Casey and ingred it should be on the first page so there's two pages of her yes schedule should be on that front one on the bottom there yeah I see those but um so are these just detailed this it's I'm I'm I guess what I'm saying is are you talking about the three at Casey and then in addition these these are just just numerical yeah the par parentheses is for my own yeah keeping track there's three music in the Parks yes got it yep there's going to be three um concerts yeah workouts in the park what I was trying to oh good thank you do you like how those music in the Parks you're doing a different park for each one I think that's fun yeah people to the different Parks yeah we had a lower uh attendance last year and so we're trying something new a little bit more themed uh events and different Parks cool y awesome with that do we already have the bands yep okay yep first one is uh children's person she has a chinchilla and a chameleon uh second one is the steel drums at Silver Lake and the third one is a um blue grass and a four person band y nice tremendous amount of work so thank you don't be afraid to come to us uh you know once a month or reach out to us for all the other ones that aren't necessarily directed at right at the park yeah no um Sarah and I work close together so you'll be hearing Lots from me and I appreciate um your time thank you oh and you might want to write reach out to some of the religious organizations in the community because a lot of them have to do community service or confirmation or whatever it is so you might want to reach out to some of those and they may have people to help you out too amazing y thank you okay have a good night thank you thank you thanks AA all right you want to practice go ahead oh I'm okay I'm good I'm good all right Riley yes now for the fun stuff um yipp uh for those of you who uh don't know me I'm RI Grahams I'm the uh community development director here for the city um so uh what I just want to run through really quickly uh with you tonight is is again just sort of a set of expect ation for Commissioners um we just heard obviously from Ava uh talking about um participating in the planning and implementation of Park and and uh wreck related events that is uh supremely important I know we just went over it but I I wanted to reiterate that again um we have some very talented and dedicated staff members here but we can't do it all alone so any help and I I I know you a bunch of you were just uh uh nominating yourselves to participate I think that's fantastic so I really do appreciate that keep an eye out on your city issued email that's uh one of the best ways that we uh can get in touch with you um check it you know regularly semi-regularly don't go one month and check it once check it routinely make make it a habit please um second uh any obviously any parks and rec related uh inquiry should be sent to Sarah uh our city staff alaz on I have her contact information there in my memo um kind of goes without saying attend these meetings um it's really important that's why you're here um we we want you to participate uh and I know you want to participate too so very important uh that you attend these meetings and um be uh be included if you know you are uh not going to be able to make it let us know ahead of time let Sarah know um you know we're always I've been doing this for 15 years 12 15 years now and I'm always worried about quorums that's like a thing for me so as we get close to meeting dates we want to know if we're going to have a quorum or not so uh if you know you're not going to be able to attend reach out to us if you know 10 minutes before you're not going to be able to attend you're sick or something still reach out to us one way or the other um and then uh lastly but probably the most important is be respectful be respectful of uh staff members of your fellow Commissioners and uh probably most importantly the the public that's who you are and we are working for uh so I just want everybody to keep that in mind that's uh very very important um I I thank you all I think it's very important that people participate in their communities I I I think it's fantastic that you are all here and so uh I applaud you um not a lot of people want to do this um you're here and I I appreciate you all so any questions for me um my question to you is are you the one who writes grants for any of the stuff that we're trying to improve or change so our our department does that it's yeah all of us would you know it's depending on what it is exactly I might tap Sarah or I might tap Chris um or Jordan any it it kind of goes back and forth he would give correct me I'm wrong we could write it but you would be the final yes say y so um one of the parks I have is Southwood and I have not met I've been back on this Commission Now for one year and I have have not yet met with the task force um from Southwood I've talked to Daryl Meyers who's now uh the head of the task force but I Daryl's the only one that I know that's on there um so with that I can see as because I live on Southwood um there's certain things that I see that could be developed in that nature preserve um but I know Public Works can't do everything thing M so one of the thoughts I have is especially with some of the down trees that we've had through the the storms from last year and we have several trees down um is it possible to maybe write a grant try to get something through uh Ramsey County or something where they could send in you know skilled qualified people to help with the down trees I know the city's also busy with the ashore um uh removal and they still have quite a few in Southwood uh and being and I haven't met with the task force I kind of know what's going on there years ago um both lloy and I were one of the founders of the task force back in the day so we kind of know what's going on with the park even though we haven't met with the task force um so my question is do we have to make a proposal to you or something to say hey can we get some grant money for help with like with the the Buckthorn and maybe the knotweed and a few other the abas of plants um right now I know we do have a few people in the city that are older than I am Believe It or Not uh that are still volunteering a lot of their time with like the mustards eat and all that stuff so I'm just wondering if that's do I have to propose something to you directly so you can have a staff member write a grant or how do you see that happening yeah um feel free to reach out to us at any point if you you know if you are aware of a specific grant that you think would work send it to us and and then we can research it as a staff and um you know determine if it's something that you know one we're we um qualified to even receive a lot of you know grants can be very very tricky very specific you there a lot of them come with some strings attached um so you know but that is our job to kind of sus through that stuff and figure out whether or not this would even be possible but if you were aware of specific grants or you know like hey I wonder if there's a grant for ABC right send it out to us we'll you know um we'll use our contacts to ask around and see if there's anything um available that might fit in that area I just know uh one of the citizens was a little concerned and talked me a little bit especially being the fight that have happened out in California they're a little concern and I kind of reached out I like I said the task I've been on back in the commission all for a year and I have not been invited to any of the task force and U when I had mentioned it to Brian he wasn't even sure if that was a liable Source anymore um so without knowing what the city's feels about the task force or they want be left up to just a park commission we would like I'd like to know that going forward so uh if it's something mean that is one of my Parks uh and it's also one of Lloyd's the two of us could go kind of go through and say hey maybe we could try to get something going to help out absolutely cuz when it was first started was also set up for a lot of the master naturalists to get their certification and stuff they all had uh Capstone projects and as far as I know now there's there's no master naturalist looking for a Capstone do you no no I have not heard of anything so if we had more insight from what the city would like to see from us um we can move forward because then I'm sure Lloyd and I together me that's also one of our parks that we share we could walk through the park once a week or once a month and try to come up with some ideas but we want to know where we need to go forward if it's something we can just write grants for or we just kind of wait for Public Works to to get freed up but if there's a way we can get a grant to help with some of the relieve some of the problems that Public Works has I think we should move forward with that it would help to uh figure out or find out what's the status of the task force so because if the task force is really not surviving or or thinking then maybe we need to uh re reassess the whole thing reassess it incorporated into the uh Park commission again and we have Riley and I am Brian the city manager and Ron from Public Works have a meeting tomorrow anyway so we can bring that up quickly and see where everybody's at and I can report back as well thank you yeah that's the only other thing because you asked for our feedback is to kind of let us know where you're thinking going forward with some of the projects being you're also new to the city um what kind of things you kind of expect from us other than we behave ourselves well I I I expect you to do that but yeah so if you have anything in mind because a lot of us sitting here have great rapport with our neighbors and stuff and that's why it's nice we're from all over the city MH so we kind of get a general feel for what's out there so um so at anytime you can give us some feedback on where you're at or where you see us going it would be appreciated I absolutely I know I know back in December or November we had talked to Ron and they were thinking that about the ash because I brought it up about the ash trees and and the down trees and I think he mentioned he's going to do it in the winter and that's usually ideally when they usually do do it in the winter he's doing he's doing a bunch now or yeah do a bu now Inwood when there's no snow they have a lot little extra time on their hands during the winter to to do that so great also just for clarification I don't think we properly introduced ourselves to Rachel well did you meet Rachel no okay um so I'm the Community Development Administrative Assistant there's three of us in in Community Development which have commissions that we're on um so I'm the staff Lea on to this commission Riley's actually my boss as the community development director so a lot of things that you guys will recommend I end up filtering to him and he makes the final decision so just to be clear on the layers as well thank you Cassidy you want to introduce yourself too hiel Cass am gotcha hello thank you anything else Riley no I don't okay trig oh I did it you got it the last you know how I remembered it oh math math triom yeah well when you're at at this age you figure things out you a sign cosine tangent oh can you uh kind of give her give us a little summary of you for Rachel thank you what a perfect I guess Prelude talking about opportunities to improve the parks uh my name is uh most of you have probably heard this before my uh but and I'm going to try and go quicker than I think I was intending talking to the microphone sorry sorry uh because you've had a full agenda so far and and I'm sure uh you don't want to stay here all night uh my name is trig Hansen I'm a landscape architect I work with HJ architect Architects and Engineering in Minneapolis uh hga was hired um through a uh competitive um RFP response uh process I guess this is mostly for Rachel U but a good summary since it's the new year and and stuff um uh in uh well the the dialogue started uh the response that we gave was almost a year ago um to a uh request for proposals for conceptual design and planning on three uh North St Paul Parks um uh you saw probably saw it in the preview of the document in the preview package but maybe you didn't if this is your firsta meeting if you were uh included anyhow we have gone through a process that eventually the contract uh our hjs contract was initiated in August last year after Riley came on board and and some uh different things were figured out um and we worked through the fall to to uh have Community engagement and come up with conceptual design for um three Parks projects so I'll get into it a little bit more here but this is the uh last draft before the final of the uh concept design and planning report that um will conclude our work with the city I can't thank you enough on how exciting and um uh informative and engaged and energetic this process was um it turned into nothing like I was expecting um we learned the project was fluid went along the way I think we all learned that you know are uh different opportunities that the the city and the Parks have to grow um and be informed by this process so um I'll admit you know where we ended up seemed different than a lot of concept design processes that I've been involved with with different municipalities but each municipality is unique and has their strengths their opportunities their weaknesses places to grow um so hopefully this what we're leaving you with is a document to guide you for um fundrais and initiative energy for um these and other parks within the system um how the document is set up and this was a failure on the first draft that I sent out was that it's actually supposed to be like a book like uh so it's 8 and 1 half by 11 spreads on a landscape um so moving forward the PDF that we will provide you will look more like this where they it's re most of the world reads things digitally now it'll read as a full spread so there might have been some con some confusion on on the layouts if you were going in a continuous page um uh we have updated a bit uh from what you have um the contents to be to highlight each of the three Parks as well um in more clarity um uh so four sections of the uh document one is a brief project overview um from the draft that you had to this one that I'm showing right now which is like the second or the the last uh one um we've included some more cons to provide better context so that if this document is used outside the confines of this conversation or people who have were familiar with the project it's better understood um as we were kind of more reviewing that um another is that you know we we introduce the uh and reference briefly the master plan or the um parks and open space master plan that was that's a you know that should go in support of this document um of work that has uh recently been done and was being completed as this uh project um uh went through the next section is about the uh engagement approach uh our understanding and feeling is that um H our firm hga and my colleagues uh Noah and Kent who were primary to this is is hga was engaged and selected to do this work because of commitment um that we have to uh engagement and equity and Noah is a a specialist in our Equity engagement group and he guided this engagement Pro process where we uh worked with you to identify the groups the stakeholders that we wanted to talk to within the community as well well as stakeholders within the city uh staff and um adjacent uh collaborators um and partners like the school district um to a very uh you know with within the confines of the time we had and the opportunities rigorous of meetings at um the artfest uh some open houses um and other con uh uh conversations um it uh also in um involved and uh the creation of some Community liaison that joined the PRC task force members um to provide valuable Insight so there's several pages that document um the process that we did to select the engagement Pro um uh routine and process the outcomes observations um and uh iterations that went in within uh and informed the engagement process you'll see uh diagrams you'll see photos of the boards and the stickers and the voting that we did um and the results uh uh also want to mention that the all of the uh meeting minutes and um notes and packets and content from each one of our meetings um have been provided to the city and those would be also an appendix to any of this it would get into more detail on some of the conversations um and content that are included in the document so from there um section three is the Design Concepts walks through each of the three sites first one being um the downtown open space uh and gives you know uh you know kind of context and Analysis um starts to talk about a few a few of these diagrams and imagery are unique to this document that that where we summarize some of the design conversations and clarified and and made them a little prettier we'll say um for a finished product um on like overlaying the program and Design Concepts um in the way that things were resulted one of the graphic things from I guess the last meeting we had is we did integrate the pops of color on the swings which is a really popular um design feature um you know we've proposed that there something like orange that would be a nice contrast to the city blue you know that could go any direction again this is a really high level um uh uh concept and program uh second uh site is the third space uh Third Street uh open space um and this this one the final concept was the nature play combined with potentially a community garden aspect we uh lay out and discuss in narrative and graphic form um the site analysis that went into this um each and I guess you'll notice each project has an individual site plan and um key so if we wanted on the website wanted to break out any individual documents for um citizens to look at and reference they could be um these these individual Pages um we also intend this that that uh the size of the file you could post on your on on the website for for um uh the public to uh download and view as well um uh each site includes uh uh conceptual graphic renderings of uh the spaces that we've that we uh planned and modeled um and so now into the third site which is uh the mcnight kind of uh big contrast to those two smaller undeveloped Parks right now which the third being mcnight athletic complex which is is a park that is in need um had been identified not only by this project by stakeholder interaction has is in need of repair and re and repurposing and reprogramming it is it has a history of being beloved for its the the softball and baseball programs that are offered there but through the process we identified that there's so much more that this park property can offer um and so uh after engagement design analysis um the final concept plan uh a phase one and two phase two approach kind of like a a a smaller site implementation or a larger um both resulted in adapting some of the program space um into flexible fields and other program amenity uh support programs like playground um and other uh uh potential opportunities like a skate park which are all things that the community asks for and through a design iteration and options conversations with the liaison and and the engagement process are the pieces of program that were selected to move forward in the final Design Concepts I won't get it would I'd keep going ad nauseum if I went got into all excited about explaining each one of the the different design R renderings phase two um really thinks about uh how this could even be a larger athletic um flexibility to the programs that are offered now um and in Co collaboration with um the school district potentially to to Really capitalize on the space that is the softball fields now and make those multi- uh sport available for more than just including softball and baseball but more than just those um through creating a flexible framework um phase two also talks about the opportunity to integrate a a building or fac Support Facility similar to what's going on at Casey Lake which seemed to be a great setup for um the artsfest and the music stuff when we were in the uh ad engagement events and and interacted so um we did the open house there um the you know the the traffic in and out you know it was just a nice hub for a park space and there was a lot of discussion and seeing opportunity for that type of thing to support um the athletic complex uh kind of within the uh a little bit unique to to the way that we laid out mcnight is that we broke into a little bit more explanation of the impacts and and the program elements um the primary program and then some of the design element features the final piece um is the consideration of cost um and these are Broad and this is noted in that that this is the broad um uh loaded cost estimates that we included um as fully uh delivered projects through the through a construction management um type of approach again um or not again because some Rachel wasn't involved in this um the process this design didn't include making decisions that were cost based at this time it was uh the approach that was taken was uh creating concept designs that re reacted and responded to the needs and the desires of the city and the residents and saying um in a as I was researching the language uh in an aggressive manner the costs of them um so that moving forward it would be easier to make decisions on how to find the right budget for the project um that's something that's approachable um we've also uh identified the conversation how there's a plethora of public and private Partnerships that could happen at a space like this there's a there's a dir of um in the city and uh identified for um publicly accessible through the through the city or other public means soccer fields um and that's where some of the the flexibility overlaps that we talk about on a flexible field of incorporating both this softball baseball and potentially soccer and other field type Sports um I will say I'm going to zoom in and here within within this uh last section which is kind of called estimate and implementation there's some uh I'll say a series of bullets that uh we kind of outline and these were part of the conversations um throughout especially as we more led to the end of the design project of the initiatives and steps that the city and its stakeholders and partners will need to start building to make any of these uh possible one of the you know there was um as this the project is not funded um any of these in in uh totality uh there is funding through the capital um uh Improvement plan for some repairs at uh mcnight um but for you know to do the to the park in in totality um it would take larger uh Financial consideration um and so that's outlined at a high conceptual level in this document so um and that's the conclusion of the docu ment so um again from HJ standpoint my me representing my colleagues and and others that have worked on it it's been a fantastic project to be engaged with and work with um I've said this to uh again I'll kind of this was my introduction to the team in the project is that I've lived I'm a St I've lived in St Paul pretty much my entire life my wife's from the East side either you say St Paul or now her family's on Oakdale and I driven 36 thousand maybe not thousands I don't know hundreds of times you know and I know of North St Paul for downtown and the car show and the snowman but I was never engaged in the community before and it was great and wonderful to get to to know that now it feels like a part of my my home and my community that I'm involved with um and if we you know if I never have working relationship again I'll always have that with the city so I really greatly appreciate that and um the interactions we've had so any questions yeah any questions or discussion I noticed um maybe you could clarify yeah um I didn't see anything where we kind I kind of asked for before was a comparison between the artificial turf and regular Turf I didn't see any like comparison I'll note that that that is something we can can we can pull that out I think we had it in the probably in the appendix um uh during the meeting content but I'll pull that out into into this document that makes sense that's a good point yeah yep yeah this is one of those things going on because artificial turf is great but you know it's it's got a real short life span and it's something that's going to have to be redone every few years so as we try to move forward budgeting anything we'll need to know kind of where that is which will have to be brought up in front of us all the time we don't want something that's going to say six years from now fall in disrepair like we have now at mcnight Fields so uh and I just know from working with the school district for 25 years that you know our Fields were not AR except for the one at North High here and Tartan just put some in but there's been a lot of problems with the artificial turf where like with John Glenn and what used to be M with middle we used to have fields that were just regular Turf and held up just as well so it's kind of like you know that's it's a great point that was an oversight on on our P to include that content in this document that that's my that was my only thoughts so anybody else I I just want to say thank you for all of the work and the intentionality that you put into this being a commissioner that was a part of this like it was very clear that the whole time your goal was to create a plan that would ultimately serve the community to the best of its ability and your entire team brought that energy um and I I'm very happy that we chose you and I'm really appreciative of all of the work that you put into this and ultimately the really great creative well thought out plan that you delivered thank you well done yeah I appreciate it working with your team like when we had a couple the open houses and stuff um your your team is spot on so well hopefully we cross paths again and I really sincerely hope that and we're here we're a support a recommen or a um a resource for moving these things forward um you know and and you know the the conversations we had had so many different ways um uh and uh it's going to have you're going to you're going to band together we're going to figure it out you know um I think it's it's obviously probably a combination of Grants and other conversations within the city and things like that so I have a question yes so the memo says we're supposed to review this and then we're talking about it in the next meeting is that yes so if you review it for today's meeting and there was any questions or concerns you can still still let me know we can get that information so you don't have a f you don't have a f a final copy yet yeah that'll be next meeting it'll be next month yes okay okay yes you'll have in the next month meeting you like approving it the the final one will be in your gotcha okay yes and we'll vote on approving that yes and and and I'll say I was considering this kind of my final pre unless you drag me back um but uh the con the content wouldn't be substantially changed or approached um some finite things so okay anybody else thanks trig thank you thank you so much all right reports from staff Cassidy anything nothing right now we had a seven minute council meeting yesterday so we'll talk next meeting Riley you got anything else I'm good Sarah uh just a couple quick things so uh trick mentioned the park and open space master plan um I have that almost completely updated we're waiting on the final version from HDA of their document to add that to our master plan or at least portions of it um so once that's completed oh yeah I'll complete the park and over space master plan we'll review it send it back to council and so we're still looking at at least probably another month or so out from having that finally approved but we're almost there so um and then just wanted to note about the three hockey ranks that are open if you're not on social media and you didn't see Riley skating in the promo video for our Parks you should follow us because it's great and Ava does all the um recording and stuff of that her dancing in the Snowman outfit was amazing so you guys check that out too that was AA so it was great um so the three hockey Rings there is a little bit of a change the lights are now on from 4:30 till 10:00 not till 9: um we had some complaints about that so we extended the hours um Casey there's Casey Northwood and Colby Hills all three of those have lights correct okay well they wanted them on till 10 yep yes so there we are um and then I wanted to note that um since commissioner Su springborn is no longer here um she was a uh liaison to Two Parks for us Tower Park in Northwood um so I was going to propose that Rachel takes those what that means is we asked that if you're assigned to a park maybe once a month to go out at least once a month take a look see if there's anything you notice that needs work or is great even if you have great feedback um and you can bring it back to the following meeting um to let us know if you have recommendations or just anything of note of Interest okay um so she had Tower Park which is the big one with the water tower on the north side of town not to be confused with Northwood that also has a giant water tower and then there's Northwood so you have the two water tower parks power and Northwood yes how many do we have with North where do you live I'm by Casey she's the only one you live by I thought I was on Northwood I'd say you were too I'm pretty sure I'm on Northwood with you yeah well what sure we have a list somewhere yes which I didn't see your name at Northwood yeah we'll BR Rachel you want it sure got it perfect there's two you taking them both yeah rolling perfect so and if you don't have any updates that's totally cool too so just just throwing that out there so that was my only thanks for today but if you like see graffiti or something on any of the Park equipment you can bring that here or you can just send a picture to Sarah and it can get handled that's one of the biggest things that you'll encounter well and it's also feedback from residents around the park that like if if if you happen to be talking to somebody and they say I have a complaint about XY you know one of your part you're sort of the the person that can bring their concerns to us okay um so it's more than just physical um stuff in the Parks it can also be issues like um I don't know well you may have an issue with somebody say you know somebody's not picking up after their dog or something like that those we can bring um to Sarah you know she'll get it to public works or cold enforcement or something like that um some of those things I mean you can address certain residents if you know them okay that say you know maybe you want to pick up after your dog but you don't have to confront them okay um you want you want to stay away from any conflicts no um depends on what parks you can have you'll have some residents will never talk to you just hi how's it going and you got some that will tell you all their problems regardless if it's the park or not yeah so um but that you're just kind of the Lea on and say well I can pass that forward for you has anyone ever done like a a scheduled and like announced like I'm the liaison for this park and I'm going to be here on this day of this month come chat with me we used to we used to have meetings out there but that's not a bad idea we haven't done that where it's like a representative will be in the park and if you you know but we but what Lloyd was saying is we have had um we can we do this anymore no we can't because of filming and stuff but um we used to have meetings in the summer out in the Parks and we would we would kind of invite invite people to come I know we miss it yeah we miss we take our camera to go I know seem seems like we could figure that out I would coordinate that with um if you're going to think we actually can we can now let's do it let's do it Hallelujah we can record it and Rec oh wonderful we want to agendize that we will explore that because I don't know what tools we have currently to do that okay but we will look let expl let's put that on the agenda for next week to discuss that for next month next week I'm not going all right all right um hold on but if that is some if that is something that you want to do as the liaison of the park I I think you can if you want to like formally you know like use City channels and whatever okay uh you would check in with Sarah and then yeah we would get approvals and stuff like that but yeah so if that's something you want to do just connect with Sarah Absolutely I'll think about that yeah all right let's go to reports Ben anything yes so the new Lighting on the North West path at KC looks great so thanks to Public Works I did just want to check in if there's an update I think there's two or three that are like the bases are in but they've just had traffic cones on top of them for at least a couple months and I know we've had holidays and stuff but sure yeah um I don't have an update but I will get one and report back to you okay the lights are fairly expensive and that they were trying to find the same light um so the ones that are currently out there that were placed and the ones that the basis are they were trying to see if they had something similar and if ultimately if we have to get the same light that's more expensive we'll get it but that's the reasoning behind it it's it's still in the works sure so thanks they look really good so I understand that as well yeah Laura I have a question so I know that we have new council members and that sometimes means reshuffling of liazon responsibilities are you still our liaison I'm not going anywhere okay um Troy Woods is with the arts and culture okay and uh Dave McKenzie is with Eda perfect perfect you get me for another two years no I'm EXC I'm excited I just wanted to make sure that uh that didn't get missed the second thing was um uh the district Community Ed office is in uh conversations with the city to bring polar explorers back which is that popup Park program that we did prior to co um what it looks like is for five uh Wednesdays during the day Community Ed and Ava will partner and host a free popup activity in um five different Parks throughout the city from like 10 to 12 during the summer to give the community an opportunity to come together but also to explore new parks um we're doing we're proposing uh a partnership the there's two in June two in July and one in August um the first one is escaping me right now uh we're partnering on the the steel drum band music in the park and we're going to do a sand castle building contest and that'll be in the evening um the second one in June is us we're going to try and break two Guinness World Records at Northwood Park one's not enough um the first one is uh the longest consecutive Leap Frog between two people uh and then the other one is the fastest assembly of a Mr Potato Head um we already have our applications in we are approved to attempt these records oh my god um Sarah you don't have that like randomly just pulled up somewhere sorry I um uh sorry I want to share the other two with you okay hold on I have it sorry I should have been prepared um the first one is tie-dye in the park at howy Park uh the one in July or the third one is actually going to be a foam party in howy park and the firet truck sprinkler is going to come back sand castles is the next one and then uh we're going to do this thing it's called a slow roll it's a thing in Detroit where people just meet up on their bikes and they just like take a slow bike ride just to like throughout the city and to hang out but we're going to do that on the Gateway so we're going to start at Rotary we're going to do the Gateway and just do like a little thing so we the the city and the district are figuring out what the contract needs to look like and once that's figured out then it's something that we're going to be able to move forward with great great cool David um what you thing I mean mcnight Fields were always in the middle of that uh Southwood uh only thing to report is the eagle scout had completed uh changing out the bad houses uh he did have an incident where there still was a resident in one of them so that turned out I guess pretty interesting but uh the bad houses that for that eagle scout that has been completed so thank you inred nothing for Silver Lake or Dorothy Rachel anything any question on Tower Northwood any questions about tonight I don't think so I think I I've learned and I'll learn as I keep going yeah you'll learn as you go yep yep and I got nothing so well I'd like to thank you for being chair for all these years um pleasure I think it's been good leadership thank you um it's been a pleasure so and hopefully moving forward things go just as smoothly yes so I'm looking forward thank you once again for your service where's where's my new seat must be over there I said by Ben you and me buddy y all right uh I make a motion to oh hold on hold on this is my tradition okay because I usually traditionally okay if you don't mind I care would you like to make a motion Rachel oh okay my first motion y yes to adjourn toj I would like to make a motion to adjourn da second D second all in favor say I I I'll opposed wow my first motion well done everybody