2006-03-01 P&R Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Parks & Recreation Committee Meeting Minutes February I, 2006 differently with poles and netting. Most of the houses were in place after the wood duck nesting season so Mr. Johnson was not able to answer if the houses were being used by wood ducks or not. Overall, Mr. Johnson was happy with the project and felt it was a success. The committee asked Mr. Johnson to keep the committee updated after he had presented his project to the Boy Scout Council. Ms. Lisa HockeTt, Centennial Youth Hockev Association Ms. Hackert made an appearance to discuss the Centennial Youth Hockey Association's goal to accomplish a new ice arena for the Centennial Community at the Schwan's Super Rink expansion in Blaine. Also in attendance was Mr. Paul Erickson who is with the National Sports Center. Currently, the Centennial Youth Hockey Association (CYHA) has 668 players, 550 families, who skate at the Centennial Arena and the Schwan's Super Rink. The CYHA and teams are renting up to 700 hours (over and above local rinks) at arenas in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Fridley, South St. Paul and East Bethel; at times up to 25 miles from home. The association would rent more hours if they could find them. The CYHA has made a down payment to secure rights to 860 prime hours on one of the new rinks at the Schwan's Super Rink, which will open in October 2006. Ms. Hockert reported Centennial is the 12th largest out of 160 youth hockey associations in the State of Minnesota, and the largest association in Minnesota Hockey's District 10. The new sheets would be NHL size; the existing four (4) sheets are Olympic size. Mr. Erickson gave a brief history on ice rinks in general, such as there 280 indoor ice arenas in Minnesota, of which 80 were built on city property and are owned and operated by a city. The cities of Lexington, Circle Pines, Centerville and Lino Lakes have never been involved in an ice arena business, though the school district built the Centennial Ice Arena, which involved tax payer monies. The City of Andover has recently built an indoor ice arena which cost $4.2 million and is completely owned and operated by the City. When the Schwan's Super Rink was built in 1998 it involved six (6) cities and two (2) counties. Four (4) sheets of ice were built at the cost of $750,000 per sheet. Mighty Ducks Grants were available at the time, which reduced the price to $500,000 per sheet. With the first build, the CYHA purchased Yz sheet of ice for $150,000. With the expansion of four (4) more sheets of ice the price is $1,000,000 per sheet and there are no grants available at this time. If the cities back the Anoka County BRA Bonds, the price can be reduced to $780,000. Anoka County also wants to ensure cities back 1,340 hours of ice per year. Mr. Erickson stated there is no problem booking ice from September through March, winter hours have always sold out. The Schwan's Super Rink is state owned, non-profit and self supporting. The ice rate is set yearly in the budget to be self maintaining. Chairperson Peterson questioned when the funding would be required, to which Mr. Erickson stated the expansion is currently under construction, opening in October 2006 and the funding needs to come from the City's 2006 budget. It was asked whether there is room for future expansion. Mr. Erickson said there is potential for two (2) more sheets of ice, but some soccer fields would be lost. The CYHA is recommending that the Cities of Centerville, Circle Pines and Lino Lakes share the backing of 1,340 ice hours/year for 20 years. Of the $780,000 for a sheet of ice, the CYHA will contribute $680,000 and the three (3) cities will collectively contribute $100,000. The City of Lexington has only 1 % of the players involved in the CYHA and will not be involved in this project. The formula used to calculate the cost to each city was the population of the cities and percentage of hockey players in each. Of the 668 players registered, Centerville has 13.5%, Circle Pines has 8.0% and Lino Lakes has 69.0%. The financial breakdown would be Centerville $16,000, Circle Pines $14,000 and Lino Lakes $72,000. If the ice hours are not sold, the same formula would be used to calculate the costs to each city. Both Ms. 20f6