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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — MARCH 9, 2026 7 Mayor Grant said Staff can look at it and let us know. If we can save $30,000-$40,000 then we could put that into a higher value structure. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said we explored what the Public Works Staff could do during the last Public Works park improvement project and the amount of coordination added into that process means you aren't saving as much as you think you are. Resources are just focused on something other than what they would be focused on. His opinion is he would rather not use our forces to do that. Parks and Recreation Manager Skalicky said contractors generally do turnkey projects. Asking them to accommodate us wanting to do work that they generally do, would be a surprise to them. Mayor Grant said if we installed a playground structure where no structure existed before, that would also be a turnkey project. Councilmember Monson wanted to clarify her comments regarding Sampson. She didn't say it is because Sampson is used less than Ingerson. She knows Sampson does get a lot of activity. The people who use that park tend to have younger kids, like four and under. Her comment was if we want to do something with the playground, there could possibly be some shifting in money. She doesn't think Sampson us used less than Ingerson. Councilmember Holden said she received a couple of complaints about Arden Oak and Freeway. The comments were that those structures are oriented more towards little kids. If we do Ingerson, we need something geared toward the 10-12-year-old group. Parks and Recreation Manager Skalicky said that can be accomplished through the RFP process. We can request age -appropriate equipment based on public engagement and Staff knowledge. Councilmember Weber said there was discussion of depressions in the ground at Ingerson because of old trees being removed. He supports replacing trees where possible. It would be a large increase in scope to re -grade the whole area. He thinks that may be out of range in the near term. He supports removing dead and diseased trees and replacing them where possible. He likes the temporary warming house, as opposed to a permanent structure. He always supports buckthorn removal but that comes with an issue of maintenance. We can pay to remove it all, but it will come back within a couple of years. He isn't sure that's a worthwhile investment unless we have a plan for controlling that regrowth. He supports the dog park improvements. He likes the idea of increasing access to the rental structure so users can easily drop off their supplies. Councilmember Holden said in the past it was recommended we used the same playground equipment at all parks for ease of replacement. She asked if that is still an issue. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen confirmed that was an advantage of using one provider. By selecting one vendor we were limited by the quality of products from that vendor. During the last park improvement project we reached out to other vendors and ended up going with a different vendor whose products had a lot of interest from the community. Staff believe having a larger vendor pool will allow us to get a better product in the long run. Councilmember Holden said we have enough money in the tree fund to fill all these parks with trees. So that shouldn't be an issue.