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Home My WebLink About1D, Celebrating Arden Hills� EN HILLS MEMORANDUM DATE: December 21, 2009 Item LD TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members Ronald J. Moorse, City Administrator FROM: Michelle Olson — Parks and Recreation Manager SUBJECT: "Celebrating Arden Hills" Background In May, the Celebrating Arden Hills Committee (CAHC) met for the first time to discuss ideas for a City festival to take place in 2010. The ideas from that meeting were brought to the City Council Work Session on June 8, 2009 for further discussion. City Council consensus was to move forward on planning for a 2010 event and to budget $25,000, with the hope of raising $15,000 in sponsorships. Staff included this amount in the 2010 budget. The committee then met in June to further discuss ideas and to begin to set a framework for the event. Staff presented the CAHC recommendations to the Council at the September 11, 2009 Council Work Session for review and comments. The two main CAHC suggestions for the event were to change the date of the event to early fall and to extend the event to a 2 day event. The thought process was to try and fit the event into the City vision. The vision states: Arden Hills is a strong community that values its unique environmental setting, strong residential neighborhoods, vital business community, well -maintained infrastructure, fiscal soundness, and our long- standing tradition as a desirable City in which to live, work and play. The Council consensus was that a fall time frame would be a nice change from the events in the past. However, the Council was not in favor of moving forward on a two day event. The direction given to staff was to work with the committee on a framework for a one day event. Discussion The CAHC has met three times since the September Council Work Session to discuss options on how to proceed with the event. The idea for the first evening had been to offer an art exhibit at the Arden Hills City Hall. In an effort to attract college students and adults, we were considering an evening of music, dancing and art. Since a two day event was perceived to be too expensive and labor intensive, the group began to look at options of how to offer two different types of activities within a one day event. • Art/Music Element: The group discussed utilizing Presbyterian Homes as a possible partner in an art/history/music event. The SOih Anniversary Celebration \\Metro-inet\ardenhills\PR&PW\Recreation\MEMOS\Council Memos\122109Celebrating Arden Hills Event Status.doc 2 included a separate event called, "Tea in the Tent" at Presbyterian Homes. This event was entirely sponsored by Presbyterian Homes and had an art display, harpist, desserts and tea. Staff contacted Presbyterian Homes to see if they would be interested in partnering with the City on this type of event. The response was overwhelming that they would love to be involved. They have already reserved the space and will work with the committee on the event details. The committee sees an advantage to utilizing this location versus operating it at the park such as: o If weather is questionable, Presbyterian Homes has indoor space available, which will be important with an art or historic display. o Residents of Presbyterian Homes could enjoy this portion of the event. o Presbyterian Homes has agreed to work with the City on this and help facilitate the event. o Presbyterian Homes will sponsor a good portion of this event. o Shuttles will be provided to and from the art event at Presbyterian Homes to the park event. • Location of Event: The Council asked staff to look into the possibility of using Perry Park or Cummings Park for the event. After meeting with the fireworks company, it was found that fireworks would be difficult to manage at either of these parks. Perry Park could possibly work after the new Perry Park trail goes in and some grading takes place. However, it is difficult to know how accessible the area outside of the outfield fence will be until the trail has been constructed. If it is too narrow, we would have to shoot the fireworks from inside field #2 and that would force the pavilion to not be able to be used due to the safety buffer. The explosives would be on site for the entire proposed time frame and it would be difficult to run the event without the pavilion for the entire event. All other areas of the park are too close to residential homes and therefore, the CAHC is recommending we utilize Tony Schmidt Regional Park. The hope is that we could keep the road open through the park and also keep the majority of the parking lots accessible as well. The County parks are available to be rented by the general public beginning in January. The month of December, the municipalities are given the opportunity to reserve the parks before the general public. Staff reserved Tony Schmidt Regional Park for Saturday, September 18th • Time of Event: The time proposed for the event is 3-Dusk. The Fling into the Arts event at Presbyterian Homes would be scheduled from 3:00-5:00 p.m. with shuttles available to go from the art event to the park event. Dusk on this date is estimated at approximately 8:00 p.m. • Event Activities: Events being considered for the day are listed below. Please note that the committee has not booked any specific events to this point. This will begin to take place in early January, as it is a 2010 budget item. In addition, staff is looking for Council review and consensus to move forward on the proposed framework before proceeding. \\Metro-inet\ardenhills\PR&PW\Recreation\MEMOS\Council Memos\122109Celebrating Arden Hills Event Status. doc 3 o Art and/or Historical Display o Bands o Food Vendors (1 - 3 different types) o Vehicle Display (Fire Trucks, Army, Antique Cars, Public Works Vehicles, Police) o Storyteller o Mad Science Presentation o K-9 Demo o Dog Agility Demo o Minnesota Thunder Soccer Skills Clinic (depending on room) o Movie on inflatable movie screen o Community Booths o Strolling bands o Magician or Comedy type show o Fireworks o Hay Rides o Rock Climbing Wall o Food Donation (Canned food drive) o Children's Game Carnival Budget As stated earlier, the budget established from the City Council is $25,000 expenses with $10 000 coming from the City contribution and $15,000 from donations/revenue. Below is an example budget for the event: EXAMPLE EVENT EXPENSE BUDGET: Fireworks $ 7,500.00 Printing/Adverti sing (Poster printing)/brochures for event/advertising/newspaper ads $ 200.00 Tent/tables/chairs for food area (gathering area — no catered dinner) $ 35500.00 Tony Schmidt Permit $ 500.00 Generator/Sound System for possible talent show or bands $ 1)500.00 2-3 bands - Entertainment $ 2,000.00 Children's Entertainment — movies, prizes, etc... $ 3,000.00 TOTAL $209000.00 With the current state of the economy, sponsorships from businesses could be difficult to find. Staff is preparing a sponsorship letter to go out by the end of December and staff will also ask \\Metro-inet\ardenhills\PR&PW\Recreation\MEMOS\ Council Memos\122109Celebrating Arden Hills Event Status.doc tI for the City Council to assist in follow up phone calls as the event draws near. The CAHC is aware of the importance of minimizing the expense of this event and will be devoting a good amount of time to trying to find activities for this event that are economical and reasonable. In addition, the committee is in favor of charging for CERTAIN types of activities to help subsidize some of the expenses of the event. Recommendation Staff provided this for informational purposes and is looking for Council input on the framework provided by the Event Committee. \\Metro-inet\ardenhills\PR&PW\Recreation\MEMOS\Council Memos\122109Celebrating Arden Hills Event Status.doc