09-19-06 PTRC Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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PARKS, TRAILS AND RECREATION COMMITTEE MEETING SEPTEMBER 19 2006 Page 5 of 8 cooperation with the Public works director. The public works director will remain as the department head. Ms. Olson will probably still present park projects needing Council approval at City Council meetings. There is still discussion as to whether who or both would serve as staff liaison to this committee. Ms. Olson thought it would be both and they would be able to cover for each other. Also, for those who do not know, the finance director has resigned as well. The search for a new finance director has been narrowed down to one candidate. • Council had a discussion on "Celebrating Arden Hills" last night. Most of the Council had the opinion that the event does not necessarily need to be a yearly event. The biggest reason being cost and whether the community wants the event every year. No decisions were made with the exception that the majority of the Council wants to take a break, look at the day and perhaps take a survey of what the community wants. The City contributed over$27,000 towards the event last year. Ms. Olson stated she understood that the Council wanted to scale back next year and perhaps only have fireworks and a band. Hopefully after elections, a group can be formed to figure out how to proceed with the event. Recruiting volunteers and sponsors have been a struggle and sponsorship is crucial to success of the event. • The Blue Cross Blue Shield "Safe Route to School" Seminar was very beneficial. Ms. Olson stated that the seminar focused on why we need safe routes to school, what the trends are, why kids are not walking to school, how many are walking, how may are riding their bikes, what the fears of parents are, what the fears of the community are and what the most beneficial things to do are. Ms. Olson stated she has talked with Jody Yungers at Ramsey County and Ms. Yunger has offered to work with us to apply for this grant. The DOT has not yet determined the deadline for the next round of grants. It is hopeful that more information will be available in December/January with the deadline soon following. It would be important to have Ramsey . County as a partner because trails would be designed on both County roads and open space. Partnerships are crucial with this type of grant. Mr. Mack and I have talked a little about where the best route for a trail is, but we want the PTRC to give us their recommendation. At the last meeting we talked about the loop on County Road E that goes across from Valentine Hills. There is a connection to the neighborhood there off Rolling Hills Road. Our thought was to put in a connection there and possibly another connection to the library. We would also want to include crosswalks to the school and to where the underpass connects. By doing so, you would have a huge connection through Tony Schmidt, the underpass and then the whole neighborhood. Also there is a possibility of putting in a trail on County Road E to connect the underpass. Ms. Olson will try to map it out. There already is a trail there but we will try to pave it and connect it in a few more places to make it more of an actual route to connect the neighbors. Ms. Olson voiced the concern that since that route is within the woods and there is always the stranger danger issue with parents she didn't know if that would be the safest route to school or if it would be the best route we can go for. Certainly any thought the committee has is appreciated. Committee Member Wheeler asked if we could make it an item of discussion on the October 17t'agenda. Ms Olson tried to explain the location of the proposed route. County Road E2 has wider shoulders and many times people assume it is a walking area. You could put in a trail all the way down Valentine Hills from the lift station road or the other side and make it into an official trail. Obviously, this grant is specifically for elementary school so this is the area we have to focus on. We need to focus the safe route to Valentine Hills for neighbors and personally, there are not a lot of safe routes to that school. Myself and Jody Yungers (RC)plan to meet out there to walk the trails. Committee Member Wheeler suggested that if we have a two mile radius around the school to work with, perhaps we could look at other connections. Ms. Olson stated that even going down New Brighton Road is a dangerous area. There are plenty of dangerous areas, most of them being County roads. We could