11-08-1983 Meeting agenda and Sept minutes

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community comparable with Arden Hills in total population has held the objective of placing professional staff at a salary level ranging between 85 and 95 percent of the mean for metropolitan area suburbs. Because comparisons are most valuable when responsibilities are similar, it does appear that the City Council is in the best position to decide when merit salary increases are warranted. The final area of financial administration to be reviewed concerns c51pital improve- ment programming. Once again, the Department has had a long history of providing hig , medium and low priority development objectives for the park system. The most recent, presented-in Ma of 1983 and subsequently modified through citizen input provides gLfi nes fc� a next ten years. In 1983 the focus has been on Cummings Park. This will continue during 1984 as well as adding major improvements to Hazelnut and Floral Parks. A completely new athletic complex will be introduced within the Arsenal if the land becomes available in 1985. The sch dule four to ten years in advance is ambitious but provides resident to impress upon a ose impr vements which are most impgaarit. It is a complete and well concieve isting s owing the same facility for long ran nning introduced ten years_go. While the evaluation most appropriately should be limited to whether the Department has produced and continued to update a Capital Improvement Program, the proposal to invest some $60,000 at the Arsenal in 1985 raises a serious question. Who is it being developed for? The remoteness of the site and access to it from where people live in Arden Hills suggests league and tournament use without any casual drop in or • even sand lot type activity. The site is perfectly acceptable as interim relief for overtaxed softball facilities. On the other hand its suitability as a community facility is questionable if the remainder of the Arsenal is declared surplus property. To date the Lity is a textbook example 9Lhow to li r oo n ngblic facilities by well identi ie iking and biking trails. I would suggest limiting improvements to items that may be moved or those that will need to be replaced in a specified period of time. This again leads to a question rather than an answer. How long will the Arsenal continue in its present location? Arden Hills residents are likely to be better informed on this issue than anyone else in the Metropolitan area. Tbe-1280 Comprehensive Plan designates the site as public land other than parks and open space, bordered north and south by industrial an 0014 surprising it the large au ark and open space area designated in the same plan at the center of t rsenal 2roperty could not provide space for a community athletic complex, In the interim, continuea oeveiopment0I a e is 111ulua within existing and proposed neighborhood parks should be further explored. The last area to be covered under administration, concerns public relations and service statistics. Both are important and both appear to be ongoing in the Department. The best public relations is quality service. Judging by the support offered the program by the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, there appears to be no problem with program satisfaction for residents. Various reports made available to the Council and the Advisory Committee contain statistics on the total participation in each of the programs. However, the staff should know more about the age, sex, cultural background, marital status, educational level occupation, p us I o ime i e ano er measure of the identity of program participants. is w o sit program emphasis wen popu ation characteristics change.