[0:00] Speaker 1: [Music] [Music] I wrote mine just now over there I wrote mine down [Music] too all right Randy is right over there come join us I don't know about mowing or [0:47] plowing or well I mean you know [Music] uh it's actually one it literally is it's literally one row back [Music] yeah all right um welcome everybody to the May 2nd Parks and Recreation advisory commit committee meeting um our first order of business is stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I of the United States of America and to the repu for it stands Nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right thank you everyone um the first the second item is the approval of the agenda is there any changes to the agenda as presented either by committee members or staff any changes all right seeing none I'll entertain a motion [1:55] Committee Member: make a motion to pass the agenda as stands [1:58] Committee Member: second [2:00] Chairperson: there has been a motion in a second all those in favor signal by saying I I I oppose motion carries the next item agenda is we're very excited to welcome our two new committee members yay uh Randy Bailey and Jess Smith so if we can take a moment here and would you please kind of introduce yourselves and a little bit about your background and history of Apple Valley that would be great um Randy we can start with you [2:33] Randy Bailey: I'm Randy baile I've been a resident of Apple Valley for about 30 some years now I spent my career as a high school math teacher at Rosemont High School and at East View High School when it opened in '97 um I do a lot of volunteer work around the community now that I'm retired including serving as co-chair along with Jess of the yes for AV Parks committee this past fall which sort of pequ my interest and here I am today [3:04] Chairperson: great welcome we're very excited to have you thanks Jess [3:08] Jess Smith: hi my name is Jeff Smith uh I've been in the area for uh 20 years now uh rais both of my kids I've got one in sophomore at uh up in duth and uh my other just is graduating from SCS and he'll join her in duth in the fall um I uh I love the area uh I've worked all over the city but I've I've chosen to stay here with my family uh about 10 years ago I started volunteering through the evaa group and had the pleasure of running that board for a couple of years and uh uh got to work on some referendum stuff and thought it was cool so thought I'd keep going so happy to be here [3:41] Chairperson: again welcome Jess and again thank you both for all your help with the referendum process as well and um getting that information out to the voters so they can can vote their opinion and U pass the referendum so thank you next on the agenda is the audience participation time and this is the time where there's about 10 minutes for people to come down come visit us share any thoughts concerns issues that you have with anything in the Parks and Rec system we really encourage people to come down and and talk with us we we take that information seriously and consideration and work with uh staff on issues so please there's nobody in the audience today but uh again please come down and see us and and share your input and feedback we'd love to hear it next item on The Bu on the agenda is approval of the April 2024 minutes um and is there any changes additions to the minutes as presented from either the staff or committee members none all right uh hearing none um I know that we'll have I'm going to ask for some abstentions um so is there a motion to approve uh the minutes as presented [4:57] Committee Member (Dave): I'll make a motion to approve the April 2024 minutes as presented [5:03] Chairperson: thanks Dave is there a second [5:04] Committee Member: second that [5:05] Chairperson: all right so first I'm going to ask for are there any abstentions there's two extensions Randy and Jess um okay noted and then all those in favor signal by saying I all right I those oppose motion carries the minutes are approved thank you next on our agenda we have um some updates uh it looks like Bill and Nick starting with [5:42] Nate Rosa: Nate thank you madam chair and committee members um Nate Rosa Recreation superintendent here uh Bill Bird couldn't be with us tonight so I'm going to fill in with him for a little bit so bear with me as we go through some of the slides that he put together I reviewed it earlier but I will not do justice as Bill probably would have to this so Bill's in charge of Our Youth and Family programming and special events and he's been here for numerous years he's ve very well versed in what we do here so we'll go through some of this uh to topics that he wants us to discuss are Youth and Family Programs the little Orchard preschool program our special events our Partnerships and then a glance at summer here are the different programs that he oversees here if we take a time to look through that one of our more popular ones on here is the music for music in Kelly Park and then our Papa wagon that we do throughout the summer here are some of the program offerings that we do all the way from Little tyes types of programs called little chefs our little or preschool program our day trips and then looking at some of our more holiday themed events um with Halloween Christmas and Easter programs some of the recreation programs that he oversees is some of our uh holiday programs with the skate with Santa bow with Santa and a few other of the Easter ones that we talked about earlier this is our little Orchard preschool program uh this is where we have anywhere between 10 and 15 youth with us throughout the the day uh on Monday wedn Friday Monday Wednesdays and Fridays for two and a half hours a day on there and it's it's an entry level if you will preschool program it's meant for social socializing and then learning some of the basics here that get them prepared for preschool and school some collaboration Partners through source so that is south of the river recreators and that's all of our our cohorts here in the different cities around us they do a we do a who done it hike and a Ground Pounders race series and that just entails a bunch of the different races throughout the different communities like we said one of the more popular ones here is music in Kelly Park we do partner with the Apple Valley Arts foundation on this they are Pinnacle to that program being successful they help set it up help run it help pick the bands help Finance it and fund it as well so they're a very big Presence at this program and we enjoy working with them they do have their schedule ready to go for the summer you can see that online on their web page or we also have it in our newsletter with a QR code so you can you know take a picture of that and it'll gives you the entire list of what's going on for that Youth and Family open gyms uh you can see some of our attendance that we do from 23 to 24 and then we have a preschool open gym a youth open gym and a family open gym and one of the things that we did really really well this year is we we tried to make this more one of the the premier programs that's available when there's no school in Pro in session and we've changed that for over the holiday break as well as our Spring Break um just to make sure that we we are open to the public and giv youth a place to go on here that change has been well received from the public the youth have been super happy that that's occurred and you can see that you know numbers are are holding strong here and we only anticipate them I mean we're only through April here on that 2024 and so we will definitely hit our numbers as we've done in the past we do have some CommunityWide special events I know this is not the preview the summer part in here but we did host our trunk Retreat and we did have our midwinter Fest here and that doubled in size from the previous year and then we added some more you know programs that went on there we had a bunch of mascots there this year we did multiple horse rides on it and we had a new feature with our Fireworks program to the South there but we kind of changed how that that setup was run and then end up being a pretty good show that we had and look forward to that same type of setup when we get to our our freedom days fireworks festival as well and then the Sumer sneak peek preview so if you look through here again our other big stuff is our playground program our indoor outdoor camps the Pua wagon like we talked about and then just a few other things here if you take a time to look through here we try to hit the wide gamut of all the different sports activities and art programs as well to make sure that we're hitting all the needs of our patrons one of the last things we did here is we wrote a grant uh Bill headed out this it was with the St Paul area associations of Realtors along with the APPA valy Arts foundation and ourselves we were awarded a $1,000 Community Arts grant that will help go towards the music in Kelly Park and then fund some of the other music that we're trying to do throughout the summer any questions on that [10:23] Committee Member: yep um what I didn't see in there was the park and wreck program has that been done away with which Park and W program where you have the high school kid or the college kid go to various parks and kids from the neighborhood come in and [10:41] Nate Rosa: so our playground program we do actually have that so that that is in there we playground progr y it's called our playground program for okay got it and we have some day camps that occur with that as well um throughout some different parks and over at our APPA Valley Community Center okay we always just call it paring R so no worries and then just cuz we have some new new committee members here today you know just want to you know showcase some of the we're all going to Showcase some of the things that we cover and go over um for myself here my team's compare compromise of Sharon ly who oversees all of our senior programs and the rentals that occur in that senior Event Center Bill Bird and we went through all of his programs here so our special events and our youth programs uh Steve Skinner who also does a lot of our indoor building rentals along with both of our aquatic facilities that we have so he does all the hiring there the day-to-day work on it and then Nick Thompson who will speak here shortly so I will not talk about what he does he does a better job than I do so we'll let him go for that just letting everyone know here too that we are near full staff through our playground program and both of our aquatic facilities so we're looking forward to ramping up for the summer on that that falls underneath my purview and then we are making progress on our new skate park uh we're looking to have some information for the committee here coming up here in the next few months do some public engagement get a design down and then move forward from there we're also working diligently with both of our athletic associations to try and do some of the facil upgrades you know they were a huge part of the referendum passing so we want to make sure that we're meeting their needs and getting some things done in upgrades that would facilitate their programs and then a handful other things I do but that will keep it short simple sweet and we will talk to Nick next are there any questions for me [12:15] Committee Member: question you've uh meent I saw on there you had a up and cominging food truck festival yep is that something new [12:28] Nate Rosa: uh so that one is new um we're working towards that right now we're trying to do a fall food truck festival we're earmarking Kelly Park for that um bill is working on that um himself with some help we're trying to partner with music with the APPA Valley Arts Foundation to move one of their current um concert nights they have to that night but we're looking for a handful of food trucks for that and a few other events at that program thank you [12:47] Chairperson: Nate I have a question for you can you talk a little bit about um kind of how the attendance has been for these programs over the last couple years are are they kind of going up you know if you can talk a little bit about the attendance and then if you can share a little bit about um kind of pricing strategies for you know just talk a little bit for Youth and Family and and how that how that works kind of I know that I know it's different with the different programs and there's a lot of things that are free um so if if you can maybe talk a little bit about those two things I think that would be great [13:25] Nate Rosa: sure so attendance wise obviously you know we're starting from back from zero when Co occurred so we're not quite to the numbers of where we were on some of our programs prior to co but we have met or exceeded those numbers in some of our other programs slowly trying to build those back up um it depends on the program itself um I don't have all the numbers with me being newer here I couldn't tell you what they were from a few years ago so my apologies I don't have that ready to go for you but we are also keeping our you know finger on the pause to figure out what programs we have been working and what programs are not have not been working so we're trying to add more of the programs that are working and we are looking towards doing a study as well that's going to help guide us what we're going to do that in the future especially with the additions of the facilities for some of our buildings and then the second part of your question was my apologies um it pricing structure so pricing structure on there we look at what's going on around in all the other communities and try and base our prices off of that we do know that some of those programs do need to be kept at a certain price on there you know take our two aquatic parks for instance there is a up charge over at the family Aquatic Center versus over at Redwood pool so knowing the user groups that come into those types of facilities that's what would determine as what we're going to charge or not charge you take those Youth and Family open gyms those are free you know and it's one of those things the youth open gym is right after school so we have a you know a bunch of latch key kids that need a place to go we have a lot of them that come over to us and so that's a community need that needs to be at that that free Price Point um for the other programs you know we work with our finance department to make sure that we're hitting our Revenue marks or doing the best we can to hit our Revenue marks and we will increase fees for the programs that we think can handle hand it but some of those other fees will have to toll the line and keep them where they're at [15:00] Chairperson: one of the things I just I'm noticing with a lot of other some other communities not maybe a lot but uh people or cities are making some of their specifically with their Youth and Family Programs free or you know especially for residents and so I I appreciate that we do have um reasonable prices and a lot of free um opportunities and would like to keep encouraging us to to look at that direction to make sure everybody can come and take advantage of the programs [15:31] Nate Rosa: we'll definitely keep that in mind note we did something this past summer over the holiday break you know our ice rinks were not up to par at all Outdoors so we did offer some free you know open Rink time inside the haze arena there where families are coming and able to enjoy that so those are the type of programs that when they fit we will go down that path and make sure that we offer them [15:47] Committee Member: ways back uh they used to do music out at uh the golf course um is is that going to be coordinated again is that happening again [15:58] Nate Rosa: so we have not had that discussion lately I know with Kelly Park that's kind of the you know place that we want to house at I know we're looking at a redo of Kelly Park and potentially a larger you know Bandshell there with the stage you know we're looking to do that in in stages and segments too so we can kind of leave different parts open so that we wouldn't miss the opportunity to continue those those programs there always open to see you know what can occur at the different facilities but depends on user groups Jim would probably speak better to what would work at the golf course and myself but yes we we do look at different option options and other programs that we've offered and do we bring them back or not okay thanks [16:35] Committee Member: as frozen apple to some extent taken over what used to be those indoor concerts at Valleywood [16:40] Nate Rosa: frozen apple is your winter indoor concert series for the city okay and then with frozen apple being over at boggarts it's you know the silly setup for it too is you know they've got all the sound Lighting systems everything and so it's a very good venue it's a good partnership with the as well so yes that has helped us there all right all right thanks B next is Nick Thompson talk about the Athletics in the fields and all that great stuff [17:17] Nick Thompson: all right Madam shair members of the committee uh my name is Nick Thompson on the um a recreation supervisor Focus areas Our Youth Athletic Association liaison um um I I do a lot of adult athletic leagues um clinics um and things like that as well as the field permits for private renters as well as the our local uh Youth Athletic Association partners and with that said we'll start with them um so a couple of uh familiar evaa and vaa faces um on this committee itself um uh we uh they do a great job for the for the Youth in in Apple Valley um and we're happy to help them out um just to name a few vaa evaa are the two big ones Fusion softball is a combination of uh all of all of Apple Valley kind of bring bring it together for fast pitch fir Haw lacrosse as well as leion baseball um to give you an idea of the scope we have 94 permitted Fields uh this spring summer 4,500 plus athletes that's just in the outdoor athletic realm um doesn't touch on what we what we do uh indoors at the Apple Valley Community Center and then roughly 12,000 Plus hours of Youth Athletic Association field use annually um and then they put on seven tournaments in town brings a lot of people into town um they do a great job and we're happy to help them out moving on to the fields uh field rentals and tournaments um we rent when the fields are not in use by the local Youth Athletic associations we rent them out to private rental rentals or tournaments that can include adult based Bas teams soccer teams Club youth baseball and softball um soccer leagues as well as tournaments uh most of those those activities are at our primary athletic complexes including Johnny Cake gidge Park East West and uh Corey Point as you may know we anticipate 22 plus multi facility tournaments in the 2024 season so most of the weekends we have something going well every weekend we have something going on at the parks sometimes M multiple tournaments um happening at the same time uh brings a lot of uh a lot of um a lot of people into town and a lot of Revenue to our local local economy uh speaking of Revenue in 2023 we were uh over $135,000 in field rental revenue and that's a 37% increase over to uh over the previous year and it's not on my slide but I actually wanted to give a shout out to to the park and recreation uh maintenance department um without you know they I work with them on the daily they do an excellent job in the field um and uh I couldn't do without them so little plug for them [20:11] Committee Member: the next on that last slide there is the increase in Revenue due to price increase or additional use [20:21] Nick Thompson: um mostly additional use we try to we try to increase prices roughly the um you know it depends on inflation depends on what our costs are but 3 to 5% is probably a rough estimate um but yeah most of that is most of that is an increased use um through through either more tournaments coming into town or um might be some more field availability some clubs have been using the Johnny Cake East uh Fields a little bit more as well thank you [20:41] Committee Member: what are the is there a difference in cost to rent an adult field versus a youth field [20:46] Nick Thompson: we have three different categories um category a is essentially the Youth Athletic Association um category and they get very heavily discounted Fields um the they only pay for the tournament tournament use and then some of the portable toilets that we have out to service their programs um there's a resident rate uh we try to keep it reasonable for residents and then there's the um non-resident and private private Association rate [21:11] Committee Member: okay Nick what's your uh projected revenue for 2024 [21:15] Nick Thompson: you're going to make me guess but I'll do it um guess is good roughly just based off of returning tournaments um the scope of what they're what they've been booking it'll be rough a 10% increase over that number [21:29] Committee Member: cool [21:30] Nick Thompson: off the top of your head [21:31] Committee Member: resident right [21:40] Nick Thompson: we don't get a ton of uh a ton of Resident uh residents are you asking for the the resident rate for the field itself or the top of my head I want to say it's $30 an hour for a field not bad yeah and I think that's all on the website too isn't it yeah yeah all that information is on the website yeah keep going on a roll so moving on to adult athletics um we run softball program one of the bigger softball programs of the Metro with 104 teams in 2023 we offer a summer as well as a fall season uh kickball is out at jic cake East as well um summer and fall season there um with uh Nate T touched on the sore Community we try to collaborate on some of these leagues that it's pretty tough for every Community to have a kickball league but together we can try to put put one together and that's that's kind of how that works out uh bean bags has been a league that has been kind of shot up over the last couple years we run indoor leagues at the Apple Valley Community Center October through May and then we have outdoor leagues at uh Johnny Cake Ridge Park East um during the warmer months June through October uh we had 128 teams in 2023 we probably have roughly the same in 2024 and finally stopped the exponential gigantic growth in this plateau a little bit um but really uh really great numbers in teams on there then a new league that we we're actually offering um we actually we had a bunch of free agents sign up individuals um that wanted to play so I worked with our uh with my evening staff to put together an individual League where they uh sign up and um have various Partners throughout the evening and are able to participate in in a league as an individual in the team for you volleyball um we we have a a huge volleyball program sand leagues are offered five nights a week out at Johnny Cake Ridge Park East where where we really shine though as our indoor leagues um four nights a week at the Apple Valley Community Center uh we have about 381 teams in 2023 that's up 133% from 2022 and uh 83% from 2021 um that's the program continues to take off um and just continue in its upward trend on on that front um anticipating a similar 10ish per increase in 2024 based on early numbers as well another thing we've been we added in 2023 was some volleyball skills clinics uh for adults had somebody approach us um wondering if that would be a good thing to try out we tested it and we've had a big weight list for most every session that we've ran since um we will have at least double maybe triple those numbers in uh in 2024 oh great and then the free agent list is actually something that um a bunch of communities have but we've had really good luck with it here here in Apple Valley uh the original intent was if you want to play softball but you don't have 12 15 people that want to play softball with you how are you going to play um so I worked with the IT department they connected me with a an online software it just intakes all the all of the your information you put your name your contact information the sports you're interested in the level that you want to play at at with those particular Sports and then it puts it into a big database that I have access to um we had 287 individuals in the past uh 365 days sign up so it's a really common commonly used thing um it obviously helps out those individuals that want to play then I have a team call me that says hey I need I need a forfeit tonight um we're short to we're short a guy and a girl for the volleyball team and I say well I've got a list of 80 people that would love to be those be that person so it's a good connection service um you heard me mention a pretty high number though um so it ended up what it's kind of evolved into it still provides a service that connection service but we've also been creating teams strictly off of that free agent list so I'll reach out to one of the free agents find somebody who's motivated and willing to try to piece a team together we allow them to sign up as individuals for one year just to get a team up and going and we've had 22 teams formed just strictly off of that free agent list which has been great to Great to get people it boosts our team members it boosts the number of people that are able to play um it's kind of a win-win all the way around [25:56] Chairperson: I I think it's great in the community building that just playing with your neighbors and getting to know each other is wonderful too [25:59] Nick Thompson: Y and then one piece that uh I haven't I shouldn't I haven't kept track of but um it's actually saved teams as well so I'll call might call Craig and say are you going to sign up this year for softball or whatever it is and you're like no I'm two players short I was like well funny that you need two players because I have a list of 50 people along that want to play um so it's I haven't kept track of how many the teams it has saved but it has definitely saved some teams from from folding uh adult basketball most of this uh has been in 2023 um we did a big overall in 20124 but I want to touch on it on this presentation Co kind of Co was tough on our basketball program so we had six sixish teams I I uh try to continue to inject new teams and three teams at add three teams at drop we're just kind of struggling um so to use that uh that connection that we have with some of the sore communities I called up Egan my counterpart in Egan and said hey is there a way that we can work together instead of a part instead of against each other so we both had Wednesday leagues they kept bopping back and forth between my league and their league or our league and their league so uh we decided to run collaborative collaborative leagues where we can both take registrations um Egan offers that or Egan hosts I should say that Wednesday League we offered a new Sunday League uh Sunday evenings at the Apple Valley Community Center which was an under underutilized time um it's the early results that have shown that it was a really good move it worked out really well um we had 13 teams in uh registered in apple through Apple Valley for the two team for the two leagues uh 27 total teams in Winter 2024 spring we didn't off we didn't even offer a league um in the past uh we decided to piece one together based on the on the high numbers of teams in Winter uh ended up with eight Apple Valley teams 20 teams total between the two communities um so it's really uh it's really taken off we're going to see if it works in the fall as well nice job and then of course we can't not talk about pickle ball um we offer lessons year round we had 162 participants in 2023 one area of of big growth in there has actually been the intro to pickle ball uh clinics just the one you know the the single night two-hour Clinic that uh that we offer um it's we tried just a couple of those in 2023 we're offering a lot more in 2024 because there was a large weight list for all of them we run some tournaments as well I do one in-house tournament and then we worked with the rotary to host their tournament which is a very big success I'm seeing some head nods maybe you might be involved um they did a great they did a great job we were happy to have them at the complex uh we offered new leagues in spring summer and fall 2023 most of those every I shouldn't say most every evening League filled in 2023 um the daytime League had a couple of a couple of openings we tripled the offerings in 2024 and basically had a similar situation where we have a wait list for just about every evening League one thing that we're trying to be careful with though with that is um there's people that want to just have open play and there's people that want to play play in a league um so while we did triple the off offerings we didn't um we didn't block any additional days we just offered additional time um times for a league so they're might be a league at stting at 5:30 and 7 instead of just at 6 o' and then open pickle ball in the community center we'll touch more on that in a second as well as Court rentals at the community center um pickle Ball's a pickle Ball's a big deal as as we all know right uh adult open gyms Nate touched on some of the Youth and Family open gyms they've been super popular our adult program is as well we have volleyball badminton pickleball um and then a new new noon hour open basketball program with all of those combined we had over 15,000 emissions in 2023 that's up 50% from the previous year um it's they're all very very popular programs and it's great to great to see the the gyms packed just about every night that they're offered um then we offered some additional holiday break Break um hours the Youth and Family of gym has been super well well received I tried to offer some additional um open open gyms in between Seasons so uh a fall season might wrap up in the middle of December we have an opportunity to offer two weeks of uh of open open gym in between you know that kind of dead zone between the the fall and the winter season so those been fairly well received as well and with that there's been a couple questions but I'm happy to take it more if you have any any questions [31:07] Chairperson: I think you've done a great job yeah yeah this is again wonderful offerings and getting really creative to not just keep the programs going but it sounds like actually thriving and creating more interest so we've been trying hard it's been great to it's great to have things work out every now and then take off great work thank you thanks Nick all right next on our agenda is a Parks referendum update um I'm guessing that's you Eric [31:21] Eric Carlson: yeah Madam chair members of the committee just a quick update with things going on with the referendum we'll talk about the haze Ice Arena um mentioned in the informal that we uh have poured the new floor Refrigeration equipment will start getting installed next week with Dashers by the end of May and we plan to have the rink up and operating again for skating activities by June 10th so that project is on par and on schedule um and we're excited to uh be wrapping that up we have some open houses scheduled um Tuesday May 14th we'll be inviting folks to come and talk with us about Redwood Park we've mailed out notices to people that live around Redwood Park we've got information on our website and social media sites about the open house uh but anyways Tuesday May 14th if people want to come and talk about Redwood Park we'll be at the community Apple Valley Community Center from 6:00 to 7:30 and they can give us uh some of their thoughts and ideas about Redwood Park and the our plans to update and replace uh some of the amenities found in Redwood Park then the next evening Wednesday May 15th will held another open house this time the focus will be on the youth baseball softball complex and improvements being made at the Hayes Park complex again that meeting will be on Tuesday May 15th I'm sorry Wednesday May 15th um at the Apple Valley Community Center from 6:00 to 7:30 and so if you're interested in providing some feedback about that um feel free to do that um we have uh we are planning to make improvements to the Apple Valley Family Aquatic Center this year um after the season closes and so the the pool will open scheduled to open on June 6th and will close the end of August um construction would start in September run through the winter and into the spring of 202 5 and then reopen again for business in June of 2020 um in 2025 and so swimmers won't lose any time in the pool as long as everything goes as planned um a lot of the improvements we'll be making at the Aquatic Center involve uh behind the scenes types of things like replacing filters and boilers and and mechanical systems but there will be some there should be and there will be some noticeable improvements uh for users as well we be uh regel coating slides we'll be creating a theme uh for the Aquatic Center um and we are working on renaming the Aquatic Center as well so we're excited about all of those projects um and and the uh benefits that that um provides we are looking at building more pickleball courts in our community um Nick talked about the uh strength and growth of the pickle ball interest um not only in Apple Valley but across the Twin Cities and Across the Nation so we're looking at adding uh 10 pickle ball courts to the existing eight pickle ball courts that we have at Johnny Johnny K Park West I don't know if we'll be under construction yet this fall um if not this year we'll do the construction next spring um so again adding 10 courts to the eight we already have so we'll have a total of 18 courts there and it'll be a great place for people that like pickle ball um or that are interested in pickle ball to come and and try it out or uh find a good game or a tournament or whatever the case might be so I um I think I'll probably just leave it at that for now that's just a brief update on some of the things that are happening with regards to the uh Parks referendum [35:01] Chairperson: I think it's just a a good reminder that there's a lot of things that are happening with the parks Bond referendum that are in motion um just super exciting but just again a reminder that there's a lot of opportunity for all the residents and the public to to come in and give their thoughts and their feedback so that those decisions can be made of of what we want to see and do in our Parks [35:28] Eric Carlson: absolutely we we want that feedback um the open houses are a great way to do it Oregon coming down here and and talking with us always welcome anything else on that Eric nothing else related to The Parks referend but we do have um so Steve rther our Park superintendent is going to provide a a brief update um and then when Steve's done then Jim zinc our Golf Course manager will provide a brief update with things happening at uh Valleywood so great yeah mhm is good go up there or you can sit there it doesn't matter go there thanks for coming up front [36:13] Steve Ruther: good evening Madam chair and members of the committee as Eric said I'm Steve rther Park maintenance superintendent uh you're all aware spring is in full swing now uh so we are plenty busy uh in my department uh fortunately we are fil we have filled up or are filling up with all of our seasonal staff uh retired people have coming in are coming in as college kids get done they're coming into uh to do the work we need uh ball field layout and prep is ongoing uh to serve the many users the two athletic or the athletic associations high schools adult leagues private renters whoever it may be uh mowing with the recent rains we're going to have trouble keeping up the way it's going if it doesn't dry out and soon as it does dry out and get warm it's going to grow even more so uh we'll stay busy with that uh pool prep but both the Aquatic Center and Redwood is going really well and even probably ahead of schedule from where we usually are uh and happy to say we haven't found any big problems yet uh going smoothly we as everything else we need it to dry out we can do some of the outside work too to get it prepped uh also uh work on the north North Creek Greenway that went through cobblestone in the fall uh talked about in the informal a little bit but restoration work is being done uh lot of irrigation needs to be repaired uh through that whole stretch all the heads were right on the edge of the asphalt so a lot of lot of heads are being replaced uh but it doesn't doesn't appear to be any Mainline issues uh and with that a lot of soing grass seed will be taking place some plantings uh and that some of the plantings will be uh maintained by the county as it's their project uh they'll also be going into uh Cory point this summer adding new trails in there uh originally they were planned to be started in that real soon but we've got some irrigation and electric that needs to be moved One Direction or the other so they can move on with that project uh engineering's helping are in contact with the county figuring out what direction they're going with that but that that will be happening this summer uh beyond that uh asht tree removals are a big concern in a lot of our Parks everybody see in the orange circles or x's on the trees uh those will be removed we've got two current contracts right now uh natural resources department is kind of leading that and then parks and street or Boulevard trees are both on that uh two different companies kind of two different corners of town right now uh they they did in the Parks what they could while the ground was firm enough now that it's rained they're going back to Boulevard trees uh so I think there's about 125 Park trees in those two contracts so once they get into some of the bigger parks are more heavily populated with ash trees they'll be a big change Community Center the Hayes Park Community Center I think there's 45 ash trees alone in that Park so that'll be a huge change over there uh beyond that a lot of volunteer work or a lot of volunteer groups coming in with the parks we just had Earth Day so a lot of groups uh wanted to help out clean up some of the parks uh very appreciated as uh sometimes we have a hard time getting to everything before we mow so everything's getting cleaned up and put away so uh that's what I have tonight any questions from the committee [40:27] Committee Member: Steve of the U of the all the turf that you manage and mole how much of that do you apply fertilizer too I mean is it you don't do every [40:40] Steve Ruther: no I mean uh especially if the rain and yeah you don't really want yep hard enough uh yeah currently we do some of the more heavily maintained areas uh Kelly Cobblestone the Aquatic Center some of our more premium Parks we do kind of a blanket fertilizing there as well as the athletic complexes those get a prescriptive fertilizer depending on what the soil samples kind of dictate that we do but General Park fertilizing those prices went up kind of skyrocketed uh about four or five years ago so uh we couldn't afford to do that but I think we had overdone it for years so grass is still growing it doesn't seem like it's getting weak in a lot of areas but uh to answer your questions majority of it is would be on irrigated uh areas including the complexes [41:49] Committee Member: did they get the irrigation at Cobblestone fixed figured out [42:01] Steve Ruther: yeah still still working on it uh it's going to be a I think that's going to be a long-term process the one the contractor that I talk to assume there's about a thousand heads along that section that was redone last fall that either needs to be repaired or replaced and some of those were only watering a probably a foot of mow area so some of those are going to be eliminated in those in certain spots [42:30] Committee Member: problem I saw last year was when we were watering uh it was after 11:00 and that doesn't make us look too good no and they when we're trying to enforce an ordinance that no no watering between what 11 and six or something they they they we we don't control the irrigation at Cobblestone but the company that does we have we have talked to them about it we've highly encourage them not to do that but we know it still happens and we'll have a conversation with them again this spring to reiterate that especially when they're on during the daytime yeah there's breezes and it blows it all over the place and so if you're walking or doing anything it's it's not a good situation so I completely agree [43:31] Committee Member: so in um parks that are more heavily affected by the ash tree removal like Haze are we replanting some of those I I understand that we probably can't go one for one across the city but I mean talking about losing 45 trees in Haz alone is yeah a large number [43:53] Steve Ruther: yeah with with the the upcoming work at Hayes with the ball field and everything we we won't plan on doing anything there until that whole concept is done uh some of the other Parks though la leavon I think we took out there's eight trees we took those out over the winter the city tree sale didn't fully sell out this year so the leftover trees uh we did replant uh over at lack leavon and the sem or the Public Works took some planted at the cemetery and we did a couple plantings in a couple Parks also okay thank you [44:27] Chairperson: any other questions uh I I guess my my one question for you would be um one I'm very glad to hear Staffing is uh in a good situation kind of sounds like you're getting ahead where you can which is always a plus um so kudos to that and then if there's something you know that there's a lot of work that you're doing now to get everything ready and and we'll be really busy over the summer what can residents know or do to help with you know Park maintenance around the city like what's if there was one ask that you would have of of residents or people using the parks that would be really helpful to your staff and keeping them the high quality maintenance that everybody enjoys what would that be [45:09] Steve Ruther: the first thing that pops into my head is just policing themselves uh you go into the park clean up after yourself I guess uh you and don't don't leave your trash everywhere we have uh a lot of area to cover and we can't pick up everything every day that's on the on the ground so that definitely helps I believe all of our parks are adopted through the adoptive Park uh program right now so that that also helps uh when the volunteers come in and clean up after the throughout the park system too great right anything else thanks Steve I'll turn the great work [45:52] Eric Carlson: Madam chair the the other one that I would add is if people would pick up their pets that would be extremely appreciated um because you can't you there's an awful lot of people that do not they're not responsible and they do not pick up after their pets so that would be a secondary one [46:09] Chairperson: yeah I I've seen some pictures and I haven't seen them in our Parks but picture is where people throw their their poop eggs in the in the woods and then it's just a pile of poop eggs there so I I really hope that nobody does that because that's one disgusting and and not not being a good neighbor and a a good yeah neighbor good ad all right Jim you're up and then when Jim's done Kayla's got some things she wants to share too okay great [46:38] Jim Zinc: uh Madame chair members of the committee I'm Jim zinc Golf Course manager um going to be a very brief we've uh we've just kind of launched the rocket if you will um but for you new committee members uh this committee and Eric and I over the last few years worked on a number of things redid our our Golf Course business plan and as part of that uh we were able to read uh we had to redo the 48y old irrigation system last year so it was a probably the one of the biggest projects the golf course would ever Undertake and um we could not be happier with how it went the contractor was great we were able to do a few course improvements um and uh it's it's been great the energy from the public has been f fantastic uh we open the golf course on uh March or April 9th uh for the high school players we typically open the first day and get all the high school kids out the afternoon uh and then we open for the public on the 10th um business has been pretty good we only had about 11 good days in April um so really the last few years we have not had a real good weatherwise start to the year um this week is what we call League week uh so our 18-hole ladies League started Tuesday Morning our uh nine-hole men's league started last night unfortunately today our Senior League in the morning and our ladies league in the afternoon not ideal weather um but those are our main leagues we have about 450 uh players in League Play at Valleywood uh virtually all the leagues are up the only one that isn't is our Thursday night ladies League because it is maxed out um that's the biggest League we have uh you know uh getting back to the irrigation project could not have happened at a better time for us uh I have been at Valleywood for a while um but our my assistant to clubhouse coordinator worked there for part-time for about 10 years but he's now been full-time five years we have a great superintendent Ryan Browning has been there about 6 or seven years now and his assistant who actually worked for us back in college has been there uh 4 years and I don't know if I mentioned Jordan's name but he's the clubhouse coordinator Jordan Johnson um so it really couldn't have happened at a better time uh there's over a thousand sprinkler heads they can run everything every single head on the course by computer if it's programmed to run and we get rain it shuts off um so we'll have a lot better control um kind of excited over the next couple years to see how we can integrate all those different controls we have uh a couple of things that came up in previous uh presentations tonight uh the concert series we used to have at Valleywood uh I think we started that probably about seven or eight years ago a Winter concert series to to uh kind of for the winter W with Kelly Park being so popular and to be honest with you it got too popular uh the first year uh we I think we had three concerts each year the first year we were getting about 80 to 100 people at each of them which was very nice uh the second year we started to run into some issues uh by the third year we were trying to figure out do we do some kind of a free ticketing system we didn't want to get where we were turning people away and eventually it got to a point where we literally couldn't fit the people in the building buing uh working with that the Arts Foundation they are they thought we need to move to a bigger facility and I think that's where the partnership with uh with Bogarts came in and all indications are that that's been a great success uh another thing that came up earlier was some of the pricing um as we say uh you know we are Community Asset we we you know provide High School access to the golf course and driving range at very steep discounts uh we also host some of their fundraising events in our in our event space um but one of the things we say is is if you play when we want you to play you'll you'll get a really good price so we run a Twilight pricing in the evening we run Daybreak pricing in the morning that both of our 18ho ladies and 18 hole Senior League can take advantage of those prices are almost half price of what we charge Friday Saturday Sunday and it's really worked out well uh I think uh maybe six years ago we modified our season pass program so that the passes are restricted and a uh as a result they the season pass players can play after 11:00 on weekends so we can maximize all that Revenue earlier in the day uh another thing that came up was uh for fertilizer and chemical applic applications uh we have a state-of-the-art GPS sprayer uh so uh it's kind of interesting it's got 25 nozzles across the back of it and if it runs over an area and then the next pass it each nozzle will shut off as it overlaps um and much like Steve has gone through the price of this stuff as uh these products has really gotten High um golf is somewhat on The Cutting Edge of how we do some of this so we have started now to use uh combination products that are both fertilizers but we'll also have uh some of the pest control or uh you know crab grass control right in it um it's uh pretty advanced stuff um you know some of these products they're $1,000 for a gallon jug and you put you know 8 ounces into a 300 gallon tank um so we try to be very conscious of all that we also have natural growth up around all the ponds we and we work with Pollution Control we have monitors down what we would call Downstream from us so if anything were to get into the water we would know um knock on wood we have not had any issues in the 10 or 15 years we've been working with those groups so uh as I say uh we put less contaminant into uh the Water System than a person walking across their driveway with their spreader open once so um we try to be very conscious of those things um but like I say it's very very busy time and we're really excited the energy is fantastic um we're really looking forward to a great year and uh we'll have more information at one of your subsequent meetings here uh but if if there's any questions I can I can answer please yeah [53:46] Committee Member: Jim a couple things as a member of the Apple Valley rotary club we really appreciate you guys offer your big room and that thing to us every Wednesday morning and I just thought of it this week yesterday at our meeting we never ever have an issue working with you guys in that facility that seems kind of neat and special it's a good relationship so thank thanks for that the second thing is you mentioned your range just a little bit that remodel is really something I if you you've used to going to a typical driving range going boy this is just this is rotten you guys have got it something going really well there it's really nice [54:33] Jim Zinc: thank you I appreciate both those comments it's it's interesting uh as I say I've been there a while I mean I played High School golf there um but my superintendent and I were up by the water tower uh in like March we had that nice stretch of four or five days and we're up there looking at some of the old ning and stuff and he finally looked at me and said what are you looking at and I'm just I just can't believe that's the driving range um and we were up there um last uh last Thursday with our ladies League they do what we call a sip and swing kind of kickoff where they can come out for their meeting and I go up and give some tips on the driving range and and the number of comments from people um it's it's really interesting all the work we did and and so much of it is underground it's like redoing the plumbing at your house you know um but that is the most impactful thing uh for the average user so I I really appreciate the the comments anything else [55:23] Committee Member: one thing or a couple things come to mind a I'm I'm really glad to hear um that you so carefully monitor the chemical applications that's that's really uh a good thing to hear because I know that golf is a sport uh sometimes takes some heat for some of that so that your proactive is a uh is a good thing um and the other thing kind of related to that is um when you come back and update us in the fall I'd be curious to know if you could put a number to um like increased deficiency in watering like how many gallons we saved um how much money that saves you know um year over year because that should be a big a big wi Force too it' be good to hear a quantity when we get through the season that'll be part of your budget right [56:18] Jim Zinc: we are very interested to see that we've already starting to discover some areas that we realized that there were underground leak and we just didn't know you know um so some areas that are were wet were were not just randomly uh wet so we should it'll be really interesting to see what our water usage report comes in at at the end of the year and we Mo we every month we uh we monitor so we check and we'll give you an update on how we're doing excellent thank you anything else all right great hearing nothing I people can book their tea times yes yes thank you very much all right thanks Jim and now we got Kayla [57:07] Kayla: Kayla hi Kayla hi madam chair members of the committee I'm actually going to stay here if you don't mind because I will be directing your attentions to the screen in just a moment but um I wanted to provide just a very brief administrative update um as you hear a lot of tonight and will be hearing about a lot in the future um obviously the referendum and its Associated projects are a huge part of what we are spending our our days working on so um what I wanted to do was draw your attention to the website to kind of highlight a couple things that you as well as members of the public can um see and uh show how they can find some more information so so this um this is our main city web page um under the Departments and services tab Parks and Recreation we have a specific link for the parks referendum this should look familiar we used this as a jumping off point for all of our communication leading up to the referendum itself um but we are also using this as a way to communicate progress on the referendum projects um one of the first areas here that we are updating a lot is the this community engagement piece um as we have more projects being developed we will be reaching out to the community and asking for their feedback um and so with that we'll be be several opport opportunities to um join us at open houses to to give feedback in person so at this page you will see where um some more information on when and where those open houses will be held um and then kind of there there's more information on this this web page about the referendum process and the projects themselves but what I really wanted to highlight here was um this um project progress section um it doesn't look super snazzy yet we're working on it with our Communications team um it's it's kind of a work in progress here but um if you visit our interactive map by clicking this link this is where a lot of our um information is going to be on progress for the referendum um I know you have all seen this before but I wanted to bring it to your attention again um at at this map and and this interface you and members of the public can um search for your park or um click on it in the map here um and then it will provide some additional information um what a good example here is the haze Arena on this side here so if you select your park and go to um this side information you will see that we've got um actually it's not showing in the way that I want it to so that's kind of embarrassing um but we have detail details written in the text there about what the project is going to look like um as the project continues we'll have more pictures available a link to the website as well that will link back to it with with more details um as we plan projects this is going to be flushed out a lot more with more pictures um obviously it's kind of a moving Target at this point as we um kind of get the lay of the land and work through the design process but um there will be one thing we really wanted to be transparent about with the community was how much money we're spending and where those dollars are going so that information will also be here um so just wanted to give you guys a brief update on that on that so if you have any questions please let me know [1:00:36] Chairperson: this is this is great Kayla and um make sure you say thanks to Eve and everybody working on this I think this is really critical that the public can go and see all the great progress that's that everybody's been working on for so long and um and will continue to develop and and share all the highlights so thanks for pointing this out and sharing that with us great job yeah um is there any more staff updates [1:01:05] Kayla: there is not [1:01:08] Chairperson: all right uh any committee updates or from any committee members [1:01:14] Committee Member: I just want to welcome our two new committee members and um remember you're you're going to have some fun on this doing this yeah stick around absolutely you can see that there's a lot going on and it's going to be a really exciting exciting year and months to come yeah all the great things it always is yeah it's it's fun we're glad you're here thank absolutely [1:01:34] Chairperson: um this next one is input on from committee members on the next agenda [1:01:40] Committee Member: sure go ahead uh a couple of notes you mentioned rotary in the pickle ball tournament I'm part of the Apple Valley Rotary Club we've announced our date for our second annual one Speaking of recreation in city that's coming up on octob or August 10th and we added a new division for raw beginners that's more of a recreational thing than competitive people wanted that and registrations are already piling in so another great Recreation opportunity here in the city another one related to cycling and paths and trails the world's largest bike sale is going to be held next Saturday right here in Apple Valley over at Dicks Valley service next door to abdlla chocolats I'm heavily involved in that so if anybody's looking for a bike we've got 500 wow refurbished bikes for sale we're the biggest bike shop in the world we donate all the money to charity so if you're looking for a bike Ricks bikes sale.com get a bike ride it around on Apple Valley's trails and that date again is Saturday May 11th 11 to3 bricks bikes sale.com has everything you need coming up right around the corner yep [1:02:51] Chairperson: all right oh that's what you were asking I'm sorry it's okay don't worry about we're good this one all right uh I think input from committee members on next agenda was that okay we did that any we're good all right uh we have come to the end of our agenda with that I will in entertain a motion to adjourn [1:03:00] Committee Member: take a motion to adjourn [1:03:02] Committee Member: second [1:03:03] Chairperson: there's a motion and a second all those in favor I I suppose meeting adjourned thank you all 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