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Page 2 of 3 picnic tables near the rinks and a porta-potty for use. For 2021/2, we did hire ice rink attendants but they worked limited hours and access to the warming houses were limited, too. The rinks typically open in December and close mid-February, but it is weather dependent. Currently, we only have three applicants for the rink attendant positions, the posting closes November 30th. None of the current applicants appear to be returnees from previous years. While getting enough applicants is part of the issue, the other piece is the training and supervising of these seasonal staff. Ideally, we’ll have the new Recreation Supervisor on-board by mid-November and they could take over these duties, but they’ll be learning the job along with the new seasonals. Lastly, our previous Recreation Supervisor anecdotally noted we have had issues with rink attendants previously, such as, not locking the buildings, not showing up for shifts, or leaving the rink lights on. Staff has discussed options and is considering the following (staff recommends either the first or second option): -Not having the warming houses open and putting picnic tables and porta-potties out for people that use the rink. The negative is obviously the warming houses won’t be open for the public to use, the benefit is we do not need to manage additional seasonal staff and then would also not need to order the temporary warming house Hazelnut Park (approx. $5,000 to $6,000). -Another option considered is having a Public Works Seasonal employee during the winter. They could act as a roving ice rink attendant, opening the warming houses, turning lights on, shoveling the rinks. This person could also assist with flooding rinks and other winter duties, such as, City Hall snow removal and trail plowing. This would be contingent on the seasonal working a different schedule (afternoons/nights and weekends), and if they were absent a day we may not open the warming houses. If we were to go this route and hire someone for about four months it would cost around $11,520, the typical total ice rink attendant cost is around $10,000. -The last option discussed is proceeding with the normal rink attendant plan and try to hire enough attendants and schedule them accordingly. Staff will do our best to accommodate and schedule accordingly, but we’ll need to be clear in the rec guide and other publications that warming houses will be open based on staffing, and we cannot guarantee availability. Winter Recreation Programming The other item needing discussion on is winter programming, this mostly comes down to timing of communication and getting a new Recreation Supervisor hired. We have reviewed programming and believe we can continue with many of the outside instructor led classes, such as, fencing, yoga, dance, etc. However, the programming that requires seasonal hiring, training, and oversight present an issue. Again, while we are hopeful we’ll have a Recreation Supervisor on-board by mid- November, we still need to work on the development of programming that starts the beginning of January. This mainly consists of before and after school programming, camps, one-time events (snowshoeing), and ice skating lessons. If we are going to continue these programs, we would need to start looking for seasonals late October and early November; however, we would need to identify and have these programs planned for a Winter Rec Guide. It should be noted for the before and after school programming, Shoreview runs programming at Island Lake and we typically share their info in our Rec Guide, but we run the program at Valentine Hills. If we didn’t offer one it would only be the Valentine Hills program, assuming Shoreview lets us continue to advertise their