2005_0620_Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

ATTACHMENT 15 Task Force Meetin� Minutes Jill reported on open skating and how it is essential to the mission of the Parks and Rec. department, it provide opportunities for individuals to skate without joining clubs or organized leagues and is necessary for balance in programs offered. During the winter the OVAL is open approximately 80 hours each week, there are weather and maintenance limitations on when it can be open, 30 hours of open skating are provided, 20-30 hours of a combination of hockey and open skating, 10 hours of open speed skating. As many as 4000 people use the OVAL per week, averaging 230 for open speedskating and 1000 per week for open skating. Greatest use is in the evening, during the daytime hours there are open skating session and schools rent ice for outings, although transportation costs have caused a decrease in school usage. During the summer season the aggressive skate park is open only in the evenings until school is out and after school ends is open 64 hours per week for the skate park and i�line skating or hockey. May 6 will be the opening date this year, as we saw during the tour the skate park is in the process of being assembled. Maintenance of the skate park ramps is done regularly. The arena is open 48 weeks of the year with 4 weeks for maintenance every year during August and early Sept. Paid admissions show that 28,000 people per year take advantage of open skating. In discussing upcoming meeting dates, agendas and themes Jake reported that he would like to bring in John Goedeke, a former city council member who was instrumental in getting the OVAL built. Mr. Goedeke will report at the next meeting. We are starting to wrap up the information gathering stage and starting to look at themes for further discussion, these themes include: generating revenue; corporate sponsorship; looking at the role of the state in financing taking a regional center approach to marketing, fundraising; possible tax support; grants; events for fundraising tournaments and tournament proceeds; concessions. It was suggested that we could bring in a resource person to help us understand what corporations look at when they consider providing sponsorship dollars, possibly Mike Neely with the MN Wild. Finally, John Kysylycyn presented 3 papers dealing with local sales taxes and state-local relations to the task force. He also mentioned a 1987 article from the Roseville Review which stated the OVAL would "break even" when it began operation, and that a local sales tax was supposed to have been put into effect but never was implemented. He stated his belief that the state realizes the economic impact of the skating center while there is little economic impact to the city. A short discussion af tax issues followed. It was pointed out that a local option sales tax of up to %a percent could be added. Most local option sales taxes are expected to be used for capital expenditures but could be used for other purposes such as general operations. A local sales tax of %z % could generate approximately 5.5 million per year, the tax would generally apply more to families with children than to the elderly, and most likely 70% or more would be paid by non-Roseville citizens. The task force will most likely consider tax options as it explores possibilities to generate revenue for the skating center. ATTACHMENT 15 Task Force Meeting Minutes