Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-20-06 PTRC Minutes ,AIZEN HILLS CITY OF ARDEN HILLS PARKS, TRAILS,AND RECREATION COMMITTEE MEETING TUESDAY,JUNE 20,2006 7:00 P.M. ARDEN HILLS CITY HALL 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Henry called the June 20,2006 meeting of the Parks,Trails and Recreation Committee to order at 7:02 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Bill Henry,Committee Members Lanny Baumann,Jim Crassweller, Dave McClung,Rich Straumann, Cindy Wheeler,Roger Williams and Steve Zilmer. OTHERS PRESENT: Greg Mack,Ramsey County Parks and Recreation Director;Michelle Olson, Parks and Recreation Supervisor; City Council Liaison Gregg Larson; and City Administrator Michelle Wolfe. MEMBERS NOT PRESENT: Committee Members Derrek Haines and Joani Werner APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Chair Henry motioned, seconded by Committee Member Williams to amend the agenda by moving the Underpass Update and Trail Connection Discussion to be the second item on the agenda. The motion carried unanimously. 2. UNDERPASS UPDATE AND TRAIL CONNECTION DISCUSSION Mr. Greg Mack, Ramsey County Parks and Recreation Director gave the Committee an overview of the Regional and State Trail System. Mr.Mack provided a map that illustrated approximately 93 miles of state and regional trails located throughout the County. Generally,the regional trails are part of the regional trail system administered by the Metropolitan Council. A few additions had been made to provide appropriate connections within an area of the County. Of the 93-mile trail system that was identified, approximately 54 miles has been developed. The remaining 39 miles has a price tag of about$25 million. The Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority has taken renewed interest in trails as one element of the overall transportation system. There have been some suggestions that the Regional Rail Authority may seek legislative authority to broaden their authority to include trails. In that capacity,the Rail Authority could be the conduit to secure funding for acquisition and development of regional trails. The regional trails identified in the PDF would serve as arterial routes. Municipalities would be encouraged to link local trails to these arterial routes in order to provide a more comprehensive trail network. Chair Henry commented that the Committee's intent has been to recommend that the diagonal trail be dedicated as the Elmer L. Andersen Trail, but the more we talked about it the more it became apparent it might be possible to make the Elmer Andersen trail much longer to connect the two regional parks. He asked if the County was open to that. Mr. Mack replied that it could be possible. The process we have is it has to initiate someplace from the citizens group. Our commission would review that and make a recommendation with the county board. I would say with Tony Bennett as chair and his long time affiliation with the Andersen's, this would be a PARKS, TRAILS AND RECREATION COMMITTEE MEETING DUNE 20 2006 Page 2 of 5 • good time to talk. A recognized champion for trails and natural resource interest, Governor Andersen is certainly deserving of this memorial. Some of the debate going on in the legislature talked about trying to reinstate some of the money he put in the 1960's that was taken away a few years ago. I think if there was a recommendation from your parks and trails committee and your city council supported that charge, there certainly is a process in place for the county to give you their recommendation. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Chair Henry had the following corrections for the May 16, 2006 minutes: • Page 2, Item 3, first bullet, second item, should read "Ramey County Sheriff to host meeting on flu pandemic planning" • Page 4, Item 6, seventh paragraph, last sentence, should read, "Committee Member Bauman stated that he might be able to design a small course for the City." • Page 4, Item 6, eighth paragraph, should read, "Committee Member Crassweller asked where staff would consider placing a bocce golf course." Committee Member Wheeler stated she was not present for the May 16 PTRC meeting. MOTION: Committee Member Straumann motioned, seconded by Committee Member McClung to approve the May 16, 2006 minutes as amended. The motion carried unanimously. 4. O&M DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION DISCUSSION(Michelle Wolfe) Ms. Wolfe stated she spoke with Chair Henry last month and he expressed the PTRC's desire to have an opportunity to have input as the city moves forward with plans for the Operations and Maintenance • Department. At that time it was asked if the city planned to fill the position. Ms. Wolfe's response was that the she did not want to fill the position until more thought was given to the current structure and if it would be best for the city going forward. Also, she would like to receive input from stakeholders, interested parties, staff and council. This was actually the first step in the information gathering stage. The timing of this meeting was such that it worked out that the process could start out here. One of the concerns she has was that the city currently is pretty much fully developed and there is not much in terms of population changes and things of that nature. If TCAAP were developed that could change. The framework vision that the Council adopted contemplates a significant amount of open space: park,amenities, etc. It seems that whatever the city does,it should be flexible enough to adjust as the city moves forward without having to shift employees around in ways that could create personnel issues in the future. Ms. Wolfe stated that the bottom line was that she was not sure if one of these four charts would be what is recommended. It could be one as presented or it could be one with some fine tuning. The plan was to put some ideas down on paper for people to react to and provide feed back and comments. She stated that she felt very strongly about the maintenance aspect and the fact that the city has eight employees who are crossed trained across the board, in park maintenance, water and sewer, storm water utilities and street improvement work. It would be a real detriment to split the labor pool into two departments as flexibility could possibly be affected. Most cities feel our current organization is a real advantage and are envious of cities like us that have that pool. Committee Chair Henry state he understood that Arden Hills has universal maintenance staff,but this is a really small city with a really small staff. Does it really get that difficult to share people if you put them in different departments? PARKS, TRAILS AND RECREATION COMMITTEE MEETING JUKE 20 2006 Page 3 of 5 • Ms. Wolfe replied it can, especially when it involves union contracts. Her previous experience was in larger cities where it had been an issue Michelle Olson stated that from her experience over the past seven years, when the O&M employees were in separate departments, it was difficult especially if employees were gone since there wasn't any cross training. When they become one department with the union, she felt that she could know something would get done even though the two park employees were gone on a given day. Since employees were trained in everything,things were a bit more efficient. Committee Member Williams asked when talking about parks and the various options, if it was really parks and trails that were being referred to? Ms. Wolfe state it was. Committee Member Williams then asked if we should label it parks and trails because trails are a pretty important component of what we are doing. Ms.Wolfe replied it was certainly an option,and she was just going with the most common term. Committee Member Wheeler stated she understood the pool concept and she thought it is a good idea,but she would like to see parks separate from public works. Possibly something that would have a city administrator, a parks director, a public works director but in between also have an O&M director/manager. These positions would work as a team. Committee Member Crassweller questions what the problem is with what we have right now that needs to be reorganized and what the potential solutions are? If one of the solutions is to have three directors and a labor pool underneath it, then let's talk about that. If another was to add one person who was to pick up three jobs and a labor pool underneath, then let's talk about that. But the question was what do we need for a city this size? And how will we solve the problem? • Ms. Wolfe replied she was looking for feedback and input. She referred back to a question regarding what the problem was and thought it was the right question to ask. One of the problems she has heard about indirectly was in regards to the competing demand of park and recreation versus public works. Maybe there were some concerns from this group about having both under a single director. It would be good for her to hear because it would help define what problem(s)with the current structure. Committee Member Williams stated he didn't know that we were not well served by the current structure. He had not heard of any complaints during his service on the committee. Committee Member Wheeler stated her concern was the workload. It seemed like that position had so much on its plate,but the structure was definitely responsive. 5. CITY COUNCIL UPDATE Council Liaison Larson provided the Committee with the following City Council Update: • At the June 19"' Council Meeting, the council voted in favor of staff recommendations for warming houses. Moving the Cummings and Valentine Park building to Freeway and Hazelnut Parks and bringing a portable unit into Valentine Park. • One of the goals of this year is to come together on a policy for the transportation alternatives. • Continued discussion with GSA on TCAAP. The city, developer and GSA are trying to reach an agreement on price. We have a limited amount of time to reach an agreement with GSA, August 1st • We received a new offer from the developer for a business park on the south side of Highway 96 and the old city hall site. 0 We have been working on a new city website. PARKS, TRAILS AND RECREATION COMMITTEE MEETING JUNE 20 2006 Page 4 of 5 • • We adopted a storm policy and an updated snow plow policy • Accepted the bid for the 2006 PMP 6. PARKS,TRAILS AND RECREATION UPDATE • Warming House Report—As Gregg discussed, we are hoping to go forward with moving exiting buildings form Valentine and Cummings to Freeway and Hazelnut. We would then temporarily utilize mobile units at Valentine Park. Staff is proposing to do the Valentine Park to Freeway to move this fall and reevaluate when to do the Cummings Park to Hazelnut Park move. • Schools Are Out Grant— This should be discussed at a future meeting. The PTRC should help identify the most appealing connections to Valentine Park. • MRPA published a large article in their Minnesota magazine. Ms. Olson provided a copy for the committee and stated it could be discussed at a future meeting. 7. PTRC VISION PLAN—STRATEGIES Chair Henry commented that the strategies were kept un-fleshed out to avoid more details than necessary. But, as long as we have it,he offered a few suggestions. Strategies for Parks Chair Henry suggested making the following changes: • Item 4, change to read `Study the feasibility of improving Valentine Park". • Item 5, delete `BMX bike course'. It has not passed Strategies for Trails • Item 3, un-strike "south side of'. Ms. Olson stated the strike out was the suggestion of a councilmember. Chair Henry stated we might change our mind later,but should leave it specific Ms. Olson stated this item was temporarily put on the agenda for the June 26"' Council meeting. If the PTRC wanted this item on the agenda a motion must be made. The following changes were proposed: • Item 1: Change the heading to read `Disk golf course/bocce ball course' and remove the location. • Item 2: Change the heading to read `Fence dog park' and reference that the County is thinking of maybe creating one. • Item 3: Good as amended above. • Item 8: Add the location description, the diagonal trail plus whatever the County would like to do. • Strategies for maintaining existing parks and trails: Encourage appropriate maintenance of existing parks. Chair Henry proposed having four clusters of strategies: Parks, Trails, Community Building and Appropriately Maintaining of Existing Parks. MOTION Committee Member Crassweller motioned, seconded by committee member Straumann to approve the strategies as amended by Chair Henry. Motion passed. (6-1) 8. PTRC NAMING GUIDELINES Chair Henry asked if the naming policy that was attached was what the PTRC proposed to be recommended to council. PARKS, TRAILS AND RECREATION COMMITTEE MEETING JUNE 20, 2006 Page 5 of 5 • Ms. Olson responded that it was the draft that Committee Baumann has put together and was in an earlier meeting packet but was never officially approved. Ms. Olson made one change under Memorials that said plan must be approved by O&M Director. Chair Henry stated in regards to the naming criteria, it makes sense as it stand if the park or trail is named after somebody, but if the park or trail is named a geographic location, them the previous designation would be best. MOTION Committee Member McClung move, seconded by Committee Member Zilmer to approve the Naming Guidelines as amended. The motion carried unanimously. Ms. Olson asked if the PTRC wanted to make a recommendation to Council to name a trail after Andersen for formal approval. Chair Henry replied not at this time. 9. TORONTO PEDESTIAN CHARTER Bronx River Parkway, a heavily traveled road, is closed from 10:00 am-2:00 pm for bicycles on Sundays. Chair Henry state is was like closing Highway 96 10. CELEBRATING ARDEN HILLS It was suggested that PTRC members could work one hour shifts at the information booth to answer park related questions. A Parks, Trails and Recreation Committee banner will be put up. We will also have the park comp plan and maps available. A sign up sheet will be passed around. • 11. NEXT MEETING DATE The next meeting will be held on August 18''. It will be a joint meeting with the Planning Commission at Tony Schmidt Park. 12. ADJOURN MOTION Committee Member Straumann moved and Committee Member Crassweller seconded a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:20 p.m.