e e e e e e e e e e e do I do it now oh so I hit it Cottage Grove Parks Recreation and Natural Resources Commission meeting call to order roll call call taken the mission of The Cottage Grove Parks and Recreation Department is to create and promote policies programs places and places that enable active living for a more Vibrant Community okay did everyone have a chance to look at the agenda do we have any questions I'll make a motion to I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as submitted I second everyone in favor I I okay did everyone have a chance to go over the September 9th minutes yes any questions anything to add all in favor or I'm sorry motion does anyone have a motion um I'll make a motion to approve the minutes second all in favor I I I any open Forum doesn't look like it okay none tonight presentations first presentation uh Vice chair is winter programming and I'll invite Recreation uh uh Recreation services manager Molly petruski to present good evening everyone welcome I am here tonight to um get everybody caught up on holiday events in Cottage Grove um obviously I realized some of these have passed so I just wanted to provide an update on those and just make sure that nothing is missed in these last few weeks before we enter 2025 so we did begin with the Hail to the braid Hail to the braid Hail to the race no Hail to the bird race at Hamlet Park the day of Thanksgiving morning there was over 688 registered Runners this year donating over $7500 that kind of kicks off the holiday train towards the friends that need food shelf so was the highest attended race that we have held so far down at Hamlet park with this group I'm a great local group of guys continuing to do a great job hosting it uh their goal is hopefully to in 2025 to break 700 registered Runners for the race Su look forward to seeing them succeed in that secondly we've launched our holiday lights home tour as of November 12th the link has been live on the website and when I looked last week there was probably like just shy of 40 houses that had submitted addresses it's a great link you can go in there and kind of start where you want to start and bring you house to house for those that have submitted that have either decorations lights or kind of the both through Cottage Grove it's a nice fun familyfriendly thing to do on a Friday or Saturday night get out of the house and do something that link will that link will continue to be updated through December 16th but it will stay live on the website through the New Year too so if you don't make it before Christmas it will definitely be on for a few weeks after the holidays hometone holiday was last Thursday here at City Hall over 500 people joined us for a festive evening of fun uh we had a great time bonfires food trucks live reindeer over here in the grass over 30 Inflatables lit up the trail behind us uh kids games we ran out of prizes so uh 400 glow sticks were handed out 1,200 cookies Santa and Mrs Claus were there it was the great night I'm we are kind of hoping that that Segways um into what we can see for attendance this week for the holiday train River Oaks held their breakfast last Sunday it was sold out a couple weeks in advance so I know a lot of people miss that um great event but it was sold out and they took over 500 uh reservations for breakfast with Santa including horse R slay rides around the golf course as I mentioned CP casc holiday train arrives this Wednesday the coldest State we've had this far cannot wait um I think we've talked it'll be about 5 Dees when train arrives so we're still encouraging people to bundle up come out see the train it really is quick um it's only about a half hour show so still kind of a fun family traditionally continue we do have a 20x 40 warming house tent sponsored by Remax if you do need a spot to warm up and again the wagons will be running from the uh park and ride up to the event making it it really quick for you guys to get up on site immediately this is the 20th year that the holiday train has stopped in Cottage Grove our goal this year and last year was $100,000 um I can share that we have met that goal and that does lead to our 20th anniversary goal of raising $2 million so I'm not going to give away any surprises so you're have to wait and see if we've met that goal but things are looking good so we're just um need people to turn out Wednesday and continue to donate it is a huge chunk of our friends and needs food shelf annual operating budget so they heavily rely on this event to be successful um we always like to remind everybody that Recreation isn't just kind of like a summer fun thing and encourage people to take it out and play this summer whether it's at our parks on our Trails warming houses outdoor skating ranks our indoor skating ranks at the ice arena sledding hills cross country skiing done at River bres once we get enough snow and show snow shoes at Oakwood Park once we get enough snow um I think most of you know that we convert the kayak rental trailer into a snowshoe rental trailer for the winter so to give you a little update and outdoor skating rinks and warming houses they are always scheduled to open as of December 26th um it's looking like we're on track Jim's hoping so I'm hoping so um new this year we will be adding glacial Valley um and continuing with Hamlet haride Highlands old Cottage Grove Peter Thompson pine tree and Woodridge we are really getting down there to be still a big city that's still hosting a lot of outdoor ranks we are very successful um we track our attendance and our rinks are heavily used so we as management justify that the need continues to be strong in our community to put the work and effort into Staffing them flooding them getting them ready every day keep keep the buildings open and clean um so we look forward to seeing what that neighborhood in glaca Valley can bring and how that rink Works um we are able to host some hockey games there there's an outdoor scoreboard so it should be really exciting winter to see hockey at glaa Valley Park Noah who I introduced earlier is hosting a puzzle competition February 8th again at glacia Valley it will be in the large recck room we have rooms set up to host 12 teams competing as fast as they can to put the 500 piece um Eric Dole puzzle together so you do have to have one person on your team over the age of 18 you get to keep the puzzle the cost is $40 and then there is prizes we already have a handful registered so we're assuming it's going to sell out pretty quick puzzle competitions are becoming more and more popular so we're excited to kind of get on this trend in the middle of winter here in Cottage Grove as well um the Dust cust off vintage snowmobile show and swap will be held January 4th it's right on the corner there of 70th and Highway 19 from 10:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. it's a great um it's a it's a just like Hail to the bird it's a group of residents who put it together so there'll be more information shared on social media but they usually get a huge turnout food trucks even if you're just looking for something fun to go and look at it's a great opportunity to get out and see Cottage Grove differently a little bit out there um and see some cool old stuff they do lots of different tricks radar guns races sled poles things like that and that is all I have I can stand for any questions that you guys might have great update got it okay thank you did you say when the snow shoes is starting or I mean obviously there's no snow but yeah we have to have quite a bit of snow so it typically is into like middle of January until have enough on there um we'll definitely post it on social media and get the word out once they are but historically we're looking at mid January before there's enough snow there's got to be quite a bit same with the Cross Country Skis at River Oaks to get those Trails groomed there's got to be quite a bit of substantially packed snow is there going to be rentals again was there rentals before of skis no of snowshoes snow shoes yes the snowshoes are in the trailer so the kayak trailer so that'll be parked in the parking lot so same thing you can reserve it it online and then it emails you a code you enter that code and you open it and then they have like adult sizes kid sizes kind of family packs things like that there's lots of different options of sizes grouped together in the trailer is River Oaks able to do ski rental or lessons yet we do not um they do not have accessible use to skis um they just groom the trails for now I know I believe the closest option would be to look through Washington County for here in Cottage Grove um I have I haven't heard of Dodge Nature Center is doing anything yet over there but I believe Washington County through Lake Elmo Park is the closest place that you can reserve or rent different varieties of CrossCountry skis to try thank you okay action items Hidden Valley Park Improvement plan thank you Vice chair members of the commission so in 2025 the Hidden Valley neighborhood is scheduled for pavement reconstruction although uh pavement is not necessarily something we normally deal with the exciting part is that when we go under these neighborhoods for pavement reconstruction we do look at the parks and Open Spaces in those areas to see if there's any uh updates or upgrades that we want to invest in while we're in there kind of wrecking the neighborhood with construction activities so uh those those pavement management opport two reasons why that that's that that's a good practice for us one um it's just a good reminder every 20 to 30 years when pavement fails that we need to also look at our parks and make sure that they're up toate make sure that there's no you know something's not out of trend or um everything's well kept and in order and then and then secondly it just gives those residents um you know pavement reconstruction is isn't always the most glorious thing when you're living in the neighborhood and they come through so maybe this is a little uh uh this is an opportunity to to take some pride and something that's reinvested into like the parks or the open space or whatever it is so so it's a good program uh Hidden Valley Park is located in the center of that neighborhood it's a 26 acre Park between hardwood Avenue and hidden Avenue and uh there's a small so there there's fishing ponds and a bunch of open space most of it's open space the fishing ponds and things like that but there is a small about one acre size Park in the middle of there right off a Hidden Valley Trail um where there's there's currently a playground and two horseshoe pits and that's it so that's the area where we're focusing in on um that Park does get used quite a bit so we want to um try to find different ways to use it right now we're looking at moving the trail around to create a better Ada to create better Ada accessibility and then eliminating the current pave Trail that's there so that would give Ada accessibility to the playground but then also to this um picnic Plaza we're calling it so a large picnic slab with two or three picnic tables on it a small shade structure um we do have to we do have to adjust where that is I think on the current image we have to move it to the South or to the east because of the power lines but regard regardless we can get a small shade structure under there and then a couple of picnic tables uh adding a a landscaping feature at the entry to to enhance that so just some sort of a rock garden and then we want to bring in some top soil or some Organics of some sort to uh improve the grass there it's actually an old U you know 20 years ago when the city used to put sand down on the roads which we don't do anymore now it's just just Sal but when they used put sands down the road sand down on the road they would sweep them up and they would have somewhere to dump well before there was too many homes there but that was one of the dumping sites so not a lot grows there right now so we'd like to scrape out the top couple inches and put some top soil in there and try to get some grass to grow which would be a pleasant update uh upgrade to that Park so with that we have the Master Plan before you I wasn't able to get it on the screen I'm sorry but um hopefully had a time a chance to take a look at it I'm here to answer questions but looking for a recommendation uh to recommendation to approve that Master Plan motion to approve the plan I'll second so chair if I could so are we approving the plan or are we recommending to council that they approve the plan you're recommending you're approving the plan as the commission which uh I assume at some point the council will ask for that recommendation and then we'll provide that to them okay thank you no changes to the playground right no changes to the playground other than uh moving the the trail entrance there yeah adding the picnic slab to it and then um adding that ADA accessible ramp but nothing to the playground equipment itself okay oh I'm sorry I forgot to mention the sport court the addition of that that sport court and again I want to be clear that these might have to adjust a little bit just because those overhead power lines so um don't get too locked into the exact location but that that is the plan it's just a matter of how things have to shift make sure they abide by the Excel eement there okay any other questions I just wanted to mention about the shade structure I actually know um one of the women who are is on the association and she had mentioned a few months ago that she'd like to see a shade structure at the park um so I shared with this her this plan and so the neighborhood's very um excited about that good to hear thank you okay any other questions so Susie motioned do we have a second uh we had commissioner Guston seconded oh sorry all in favor I I thank you okay Beldon and hardwood Park playgrounds thank you Vice chair members of the commission I'm going to turn this one over to our Recreation supervisor Brad mckern to walk through the playground proposals uh good good evening commission my name is uh Brad mckern Recreation supervisor uh so a few months back uh we got into thinking of replacing Beldon hardwood Parks uh kind of what I have found uh with those smaller neighborhood parks is getting surveys out to those neighborhoods um and getting the recommendation of the color scheme the playground design and um receiving any other information from those residents tends to be a good thing and it uh makes those residents feel like they are truly a part of um this decision here tonight so um what I'm going to do is go through some of those survey results and uh in the end we'll be looking for some recommendations and hopefully some approval of a few new playgrounds for our community so if you guys all had a chance to look over the packets uh that were provided um I also have them included in here um but as you can see here design two um did come in um with 14 total votes um and then we got design one and three and second and third we do have some color options here and we can come back to these um but just so we are aware electric is kind of our Top Choice and retro coming in at second so as we look here um again electric uh being number one that is here on your left hand side a little blue green and gray color combination it is important to note that these playgrounds are not the design this is just the color scheme so again we got blue green and gray then we were looking at retro as well here's angelfish and Meadow just some other options for you guys to see and retro here on the left as well kind of that that Amber green and gray and a little bit of orange mixed in as well Citrus on the right little brighter greens and yellows with some blues kind of a good Cottage Grove color there so Beldum Park here uh through Weber was the number one choice um offers some you know three or four different total structures um with a total of four swings uh Tu being of the smaller children size there's kind of a second uh look at that as well kind of more up close of the smaller portion Flag ship was the second that came in and as we look at those just kind of see different platforms um it looks to have one less uh platform type facility on there does have a few more swings and so we're looking for a recommendation um on Belden park for the playground design and color scheme and um we can go into some additional comments here after that uh if you would like but some things that I uh would like you guys to look over is some of these responses those people don't necessarily make it to the meetings that we put on here we don't we might not hear their voice when we're out um in their neighborhoods um but being able to read through some of the some of these uh really I think is kind of eye opening um something that we might not think of as adults the kids find awesome and I hope that when these parents are doing these surveys they're uh getting their kids involved so it's kind of nice you know especially here at Beldon um they're this individual is looking for some more toddler swings um so something to keep into consideration there there's a second one that says more swings bigger Park sometimes out of the equation on that one just kind of going through all these here if you want me to stop or go back please let me know how many swings are there right now that I do not know off the top I'd have to look back at the um pictures that I took I believe there's four okay cuz it looks like on the one that was the most recommended design it looks like there's four there was four yep yeah kind of interesting how that works right you start seeing all the comments say we want more swings but the highest voted one was with only four so we'll just kind of continue through this one more real quick and for a neighborhood park uh four swings tend tends to be adequate I know there are times where there's not enough swings but um you can't always plan for the the the the busiest times of the year only right so so um kind of as I was saying we do have three total um proposals two that came in at the most one from Flagship and one from Weber um as a reminder Weber was uh the number one recommended choice from the public um Brad maybe put that image up real quick and then I guess we'll just invite discussion I like number three oh I like number three the best that I mean it a there's more swings but it also has two separate play areas so maybe one more geared towards the older kids and one for the younger kids but I don't know I like number two too but I don't really love number one but it's not my neighborhood it certainly does look like um this Flagship does seem a little little bit more spread out mhm um it could be that that additional play structure in the middle of of that playground makes the Weber Choice feel a little tighter um but in general it's a relatively small Park um I I should note though the container size is the same okay on all of these because we're reusing the existing concrete curbing so if there's more space in there that means there's probably less equipment if there's more open space right so I think it just looks more open because of it's hard to tell picture or do you think is the size of the structure feel like number three is like taller than number one so maybe that's why like I don't know but it does look like different right am I or am I crazy yeah but I think number one is like wider it looks like a footprint where the other one's like taller I think it could certainly be um kind of how the general photo is taken sure compared to the others um but yeah as as Zach mentioned it is the same footprint um and I think we just need to decide do we want the open space or additional structures and opportunities what were the actual totals again for the voting numbers absolutely so as we look um design two which was Weber um and then design one which was Flagship is eight I did leave that um three boats out um just in general um kind of trying to stick with the top two on those being that the second and third were so far apart so chair I'm kind of confused Brad maybe it's just me but I see design one I see design two I see Weber in more than one place I'm not sure I'm looking at the same playgrounds as your pie chart so I need you to clarify that for me absolutely sorry for the for the confusion about that um so when I send out the survey to the residents I try to keep it Anonymous from what they're voting on right I don't want to say a certain um business I don't want them to have any biases towards businesses if they understand a Weber or a flagship or maybe their friend works there whatever it might be um so when we're looking at the the survey results the second choice was Weber on the survey itself now the results the number one result was Weber if that makes makes sense if sorry I I'm still really confused can you put the chart up so we can see that I think on our thing it says like listed in order of survey results so then number one where it's not number one on his thing is just the number one on votes on our packet is that what it is because it looks like the chart says design two and the packet says design one well so I think that it says on ours listed because the red and red the red and blue One's number one right yep yeah so it it's designed two for the neighborhood on so there there was three designs that were sent to the neighborhood resident and so as uh Kelly was saying they're listed on the PowerPoint in the order of how they were voted on so Weber got won the highest votes 14 for one of their designs and eight for correct Weber got the highest votes 14 for one of their designs and eight for the other which of weather Weber's designs got the 14 votes the one design number one or design number two it is it is wrong between the you're right between the memo and the survey because it says design one and design two so it is wrong so Brad just clarify that this is the preferred design out of the survey it is yes so then the alternative design the the purple and yellow one would be the the second highest votes um in terms of Maintenance or upkeep on the play equipment have you found the Weber playgrounds to be um better quality over the flagship or have they been similar in terms of Maintenance both of which are fairly similar okay whether it's that or little ties they're all pretty much the same okay general maintenance wise okay thank you and and I should remind the commission uh we when we give a when we put a budget proposal on to the request for proposal we do save some dollars so that if there's elements of one playground that you would that you really like but it didn't make it into the preferred playground we can try to work with the playground designer to incorporate that so if you say you know I really like design one but there's this thing in design two that I really like or more swings or whatever it is now we all have to work we have to work within that container so that can be challenging sometimes but if you have those suggestions we can try to work that and we're usually pretty successful in getting something close to working so I like the Weber design one but I really like the car in design two oh so I think it would be cool if you I don't the cars and the steering that they're just really fun now I I do want to make sure that I like the design that got the most votes from the residents because it got 14 votes and the other two designs got 11 total so I'm still not clear which design that is but that's the one I like the best the blue and the red design is the preferred option in the survey so I I will say with the car just just note that that's that's not um you can't climb it you can't it's just a but you can pretend to drive it yes and talk on your cell phone and and if we can fit that in there that's fine but if it comes at the cost of losing a climbing structure that's in the preferred option I just want to make sure that we understand that because there's there's multiple independent climbing and then there's a balance beam in the preferred structure so there could be a trade-off there of right so one one's more of the cognitive one's more of the physical do kids use like do we find that the kids use these extra climbing balance beam structures like yes they do yes sometimes they're the most everything in the park okay I mean I know like my littles would love to climb on that but I'm just wondering if like the older kids actually use them so yeah and I would say I would say older kids prefer that over the uh slides and stuff I mean stairs stairs and platforms aren't all that exciting right unless you're older older where you're just hanging out and causing trouble then maybe it's a little more exciting but stairs and platforms aren't all that exciting they cost a lot so we've been trying to move away from too many stairs and platforms but and those four swings that are pictured would be able to stay in yes so are we thinking we want to move forward with Weber the most we we do need to choose on a a color design as well so do we need to make a motion on the designs Act or just say design design and color please oh okay motion for Weber design one second all in favor I hi and now we need to pick a color go back and I I I haven't voted I'd like a discussion on clarification of which design that is that is the red and blue I vote yes that is a red and blue option in your memo labeled Weber design one so let's let's take another vote just to make sure that we're all on the same page what I heard from the motion was in your memo Weber design one which clarification your memo is the only red and blue design in the packet all in favor of Weber design one I I I any opposed that pass color color all right we will go back through the color options here again as we are looking it does look like electric is standing out kind of above all the others with retro at number two and Meadow AC close third the only question I have is I know we've talked about this before but are there certain colors that if I remember right there's certain colors that just don't last very long like they fade quick is electric one of those combinations uh commissioner Crabtree yeah typically purple and then sometimes the Reds those are the ones that we are most afraid of so Blues are pretty common I wouldn't I wouldn't be afraid of those okay blues and greens are not afraid of and just so it's fresh we got Meadow and retro at number two M was there on your right and retro on the left here this is so complicated cuz I'm super color blind and I can't tell any of them so you can just take a motion on okay I motion for electric I second or I mean yeah second all right all in favor I all right moving on to the next nailed that you would want what the public wanted I like it all right so we are moving on to hardwood here again same thing sent out surveys uh to all the surrounding Community uh all the surrounding Neighbors about a quar mile radius as we look here Design One 15 total votes design three and two came in at 6 and four come back to Colors here this design one was voted on the most by The Neighborhood this was Flag ships design this was weers this was the second in the survey results here's a different Viewpoint of Webers and this was the second submission from Weber that came in third place what is the thing in the middle is that just monkey bars or what is that uh are you talking the play structure yeah like that structure do we what is that I believe that to be uh a sort of Monkey Bar climbing type activity kind of interesting is it it almost looks like it's angle I was just going to say that yeah and then there's like the the three like four like ropes or something you look at ours you can see it better so see that those are those are ropes yeah with with little with little plastic climbing discs on them NE yeah it's different yeah like those are at the what's one with the big sandbox Park ideal no yes yeah those my kids love those this one came in third though this was the third place design yep so I'll just go back through towards this was the second place Design This is the back view of it this is the front view of It kind of more your traditional structure kind of flat running areas on the structure itself couple of slides did they have any comments I was just going to ask that too yep you want me to look at design one one more time real quick okay this was the number one voted on design there are two separate structures there in addition to the swings MH I think so go back down to the comments here some things that stuck out to me with this uh asking for shade I think with people that utilize those facilities so much throughout the summer having an area not only for the kids but the parents or grandparents to stay at is is something that I think is important whether that be an actual structure or it's something that we think that we need to plant some sort of trees around I've seen a few of those in here as well I do like number seven here how they just appreciate you know us asking for their input this one's asking for complimentary to Nature and not crazy colors the ex few benches for parents would be nice and those aren't in the pictures but are those a part of the plan like I don't see benches benches yeah um those will be included okay how many we always have at least one I I believe there is one in good condition there because I remember asking you regarding that so there is currently one here at hardwood can we add more or no I think that would be something we would have to certainly discuss and look at like it's a wanted thing yeah we could I mean they're for budgetary purposes they're probably $2,500 but we could do that shade and benches shade natural colors pickle ball and basketball and dogs and dogs some some of the comments I do come back are is there more shade at this park there it is a more shaded Park I I personally think um with the trees that are located relatively close to it um depending on the time of day that you're there though the sun may be beating on a bit harder in certain areas of the playground probably in the earlier mornings I would guess most of the shade is um the shade trees are on the self side of the park so that helps okay quite a bit Brad I just want to I want to be absolutely clear on our designs again here so by can you show us the top vote getter which is the flagship option right so that's the top B structure is right so the memo shows the next one as the teal and greenish colored on so that shows number two which is listed as design three but that was actually was at the second highest votes correct if that if that's with the me memo that might be correct and then the third the last was the ne the other one which is the blue royal blue and kelly green so that would be the that would be the lowest rated that makes more sense yes on our packet they go yes so I apologize apologize about that for the confusion having the two having the two weers designs we don't normally have that usually we have one from each vendor but I think it's confused some things so so apologies for that can we see the U numerical votes and the First Choice versus like the second one again so okay big difference I do like the spinny thing in number one so this was the one with the most votes I do find uh that the kids do really enjoy that that spinning feature this would be number three in the results where's the other half of it though H so if they talk in there where's the other half of it oh it was in the other picture oh again number three in the results and number two in the results oh okay I wasn't looking up got it so I'd like to open it up for a little bit of discussion and hopefully uh come to a recommendation on playgrounds do we know the neighborhood around this park like is it little kids big kids um I don't know exactly the demographics on little or big kids I do know there is some um larger multi-unit housing um on the east side of the park um but specifically regarding uh the ages I I don't have an answer on that the neighborhood was built in 2024 but as Brad said there's Town there's quite a few Town Homes there's uh a pretty high-end single family home so I think you have you have a good mix of every type of demographic there I like the first one I quite like that first one that was the most rated partly because like the structures seem geared towards different levels of abilities and ages like I I I kind of think that climbing structure in the second one is fun but it's also not so useful for our short little Bitties there isn't much climbing stuff though like in the first one like the one that we voted on for the first park right there was that like extra like balance beam climbing stuff for this one there's just not much it doesn't look like this one has like that actual Monkey Bar and like Po Park it's got the second little there are two spinners there you know it could be possible if you want to add an independent balancing or climbing me uh piece of equipment we could look at doing that and it did get quite a lot of votes so so to address the swings so I saw a couple requests for more toddler swings and then just in general and we've heard it for years more swings total but in all the designs we've seen tonight from all the companies it's always four swings and there's always two regular ones and then two either toddler or one toddler and one um is it a friendship swing or is it a accessibility swing uh either or it could be either or yeah is that kind of a standard or could we add two regular swings in there somewhere or yeah chair I think as I mentioned to the commission before I think um I think four is adequate I know there are times where there's there's going to be an overload on the swings but you know you got to look it's like a parking lot you know everybody sees it at the time it's filled up and they get frustrated but I would say 99% 99.9% of the time there's a swing available so it's four four swings are pretty adequate we have a lot of neighborhood parks that just have two with one tidler swing hanging off the end so this is actually a little bit more than a lot of our neighborhood parks I just wanted to throw in there that swing sets take up a lot of space mhm they fall zones in that are a lot it's 1 and 1/2 times the height of the pole front and back so you lose a lot of space with that and it's half of the size to the side that has to have fall zone all the way around it so the more we add the less of everything else you can have in the structure okay to say we go to a lot of these like little parks and rarely or my kids are only once a lot of times or like it depends on the time of day but okay they'll be like onek on the swing mhm that's saw ours is too in our neighborhood oh see Arbor Meadows I see more kids on the swings all the time MH but and the only other I guess suggestion I would have for this design is that random weird little chair out in the middle oh it spins yeah it's a spinner it's called a saddle spinner it's meant to be like a saddle seat all right but again I would change it to a balance beam or something so so there there's two there's two independent spinning you piece of equipment so if you want to change that out to something Climer balancing we can look to do that or adding like another car so that it's not just one random maybe like weird in the middle we yeah you probably have to have a fall there's a pretty big fall zone on it say it's fun you don't put your kid on there and then you tell him to try to walk a straight line after okay does anybody more discussion or does anyone want to make a motion um motion for a flagship with a balanced beam instead of the spinny chair second all those in favor I I I we move to a color design real quick yeah as a reminder uh the designs that we'll see are not representative of the playground and as we're looking here uh forest and metal are our top choices forest and Meadow look almost the same to me are they the same I think the only difference I could notice was that the poles in Forest are brown like Tree Trunks and they're like this okay mud gray thing and similar they do look very very similar yeah and they did the common sale so they wanted more natural colors so MH okay I'll look at a number three here real quick uh looks like citrus and angelfish those are very bright colors you got your greens and yellows and blues and citrus and angelfish toucan are the very bright ones I like Forest oh does the dark brown stuff on the forest design will that get hotter than than the meadow stuff because it's a darker color I don't I don't think that would get any hotter I don't we haven't had a problem and we I will say that that color is um what's there right now we don't get complaints so it's there right now but they want more natural is that what they're say it's not the exact same but it's it's it's the same color scheme which is like a burgundy tan yeah Green which is what a lot of our playgrounds are now so no yeah I think they're just that the person there was just asking for not to have bright colors oh not too any other questions regarding color options okay um I'll make a motion to approve um the playground in Forest color I'll second all those in favor I one opposed all right that is all I have folks thank you forest and option number one that's that chair just looks weird to me I like I like those chairs but it looks weird like one by itself I'd be in favor of two I even like sitting on as ad don't just somewhere to sit yeah so we street parking concerns thank you chair members of the commission uh over the summer we had a resident concerned about uh on street parking at Granada Park as a result of the growth of pickle ball activities so uh we've had uh we we've visited with this with the resident and and s's concern he sent pictures and everything else and his concerns are valid people are parking front of the yard there's some illegal activity in terms of the way they're moving their vehicles um nothing beyond that but you know whether it's parking in front of a hydrant or using his uh driveway for a turnaround and and things of that and he's got concerns just for the Public Safety in the area and also um kind of an invasion of his privacy so uh with that we thought we would kind of bring it to a public process and see what we can do to try to mitigate the concerns we've talked to the public works department our engineering folks and our uh police our police staff our community lison has actually went out and visited with him and tried to monitor the issue as well and we brought this to the Public Service Commission Public Services Commission in um can't remember if it was October or November but whatever their last meeting was and reviewed it with them and and and did an open form and invited residents to attend uh that gentleman was the only resident that actually attended um uh so we invited them through a through a letter uh so we did come up with uh talking with that commission we came up with a few different options talk through some some different options and and potential pricing models and and the impacts of what they might have and they basically they want feedback from The Parks Commission which is a which is a valid request so uh we're bringing it back to you with a little bit more framework in place than we probably brought it to the Public Services Commission so I we we've narrow it down to three legitimate um feasible options the first would be um Street adjacent parking so we would uh develop um we would cut into the park just kind of as it's shown right here we would moove that I believe that's a I believe that's an ash tree there but I'm not 100% sure but that that large tree where would get removed and then we would basically uh people would just this is showing up on the screen right yeah people would just pull right off the street and pull into their parking stall uh if you're familiar with pine tree Valley Park on Indian Boulevard it would operate similar to that that cost about $155,000 we do remove the large asht tree a little bit of perimeter or perimeter construction or concrete work but um pretty nominal cost for 8 to 10 parking stalls and then the nice thing too is if you want to grow you can continue to grow that pretty easily eily um in the future if you need to the second option is a dedicated parking lot so you actually pull off the road and then have a dedicated parking lot of 14 to 16 stalls uh this is about a $100,000 project because you have a concrete curb and guttering uh obviously there's quite a bit of asphalt and the base material uh striping uh once complete I should note that it is difficult to expand just because of the the footprint there and then the other thing too is you are losing that green open space in the middle which is actually designed as a recreational space so that Turf is meant to be to throw a frisbee throw a baseball football whatever it might be uh so you do lose that open Turf space that's there um you can see you lose the majority of it so um that's about $100,000 project and then the third and final option I shouldn't say the final but the third option that we are currently considering feasible would be just to uh one uh to provide parking on one side of the uh Street there um so we would say resident parking only or no parking on the um on the self side of the of the street um the police department did recommend not doing resident parking only because that's difficult for them to to um to enforce um there's a little bit of that parking like over by the high school but again they say it's very difficult to enforce High School's a little bit different because they can hammer down on that that zone a little bit better over there between student parking and non-student parking I guess um but they did recommend against doing resident only but they said if you want to Pro if you want to do one-sided n parking then they could enforce that a little bit better um because they don't have to figure out who's a resident who's not a resident um so this a pretty easy one it's just the cost of signs and things like that now the problem with this uh or the challenge to this one is that you're pushing the problem somewhere else down the road right so might not be a problem for these seven or eight residents but now the problem just shifted down to seven or eight residents down um further down the road theoretically I don't know if that's true or not but it's it seems like that's what would happen so with that um looking for some feedback from The Parks Commission and perhaps a recommendation that I can bring back to the Public Services Commission to mitigate those safety and traffic concerns at Kata Park and again I just want to it does seem to stem purely from the pickle ball usage there um so that's why we're bringing it back to the Parks Commission commissioner olon thank you um I I like the idea of the street adjacent parking that seems to make almost sense to me can we replace the ash tree yes as part of the project yes in in the Park yeah we would move it further down the boulevard somewhere yeah I mean obviously the trees's got to go but replace it with another faster growing tree okay with that I would I would I would like that option myself on a busy pickle ball night how many cars are typically parked on the street there no so that's the hard part you know we drove and we myself and the mayor and other folks have drove and tried to find the time varies and it's not it's not always at night sometimes it's 9:00 in the morning on a Saturday morning and that's when there's a lot of pickle Ballers there and that's when kids are out also bicyc in the streets so it's hard to know I mean I've seen as many as 15 cars there uh he says there the resident says there's times where there's more but you can imagine 15 cars in front of you know he lives right across from the pickle ball court so they start there and then they work their way out so he's seeing all those cars right in front of his house so I would say on average there's a couple or a few cars out there but at its worst I would say probably 15 are there any plans to increase the pickle ball Courts at this park or is it just going to stay those three courts just those three would remain and I will also say I said it at the Public Public Services Commission this is a good problem to have people are using the park so I I gave a little history lesson to the folks to the to the public service work Public Services Commission that the reason we put the pickle ball courts in is we reinvested that Park we put a new playground in a picnic shelter we did and pickle ball courts because we did a survey to the resident say all right we're going to put some money into this park we're going to reinvest what do you want and those were the things that people wanted in the neighborhood so we reinvested and now we have the other problem where so prior to that we were getting complaints of the park wasn't being used the the tennis courts were dilapidated and uh there was a lot of vandalism and people were hiding out and doing who knows what so we're in a much better spot now I think dealing with this concern rather than those concerns so police reports our way down so with a dedicated parking lot I can see it being a problem because it's farther away from the pickle ball carts and people aren't going to park in it especially if the street parking is still open correct but if we do the street adjacent parking the whole block in front of the pickle ball carts is still street parking correct correct and if I can just add further the other the other concern with that is is uh unless you did resident only which again the police say is very hard to enforce so if you live there you lose the ability to park on your street now which some residents may be very upset about that too when they have guests and visitors and their visitors can't park in front of their house so or themselves um I just wanted to mention that my family has tried to go around to all the new parks that have been put in this summer and we did go to Granada and it was really busy okay so there was a lot of usage and there were a lot of young families on the playground so um it's I think it's a great addition to the park um system but I could see how some of the neighbors could be a little bit annoyed with the just the additional use of of the park right yeah I would say like the adjacent street parking because of like that situation too the families like I've seen them using that open space that you would be taking away MH for the parking lot for what is it an added couple spots did the resident have a prefer refence uh so actually we did not provide any options that were laid out like this we had just kind of wanted to talk through it and invite we again we invited the neighborhood to to attend we wanted to get their feedback first and so the the Public Service Commission is bringing this back to you without seeing these three options right now now they know those options exist we didn't talk much about the uh the adjacent parking um but we'll bring back whatever your recommendations are to them in the street adjacent parking it talks about being easy to expand upon what would that expansion look like if it was needed yeah because there's so here's the image again because there's limited uh concrete so the concrete would basically just run these three sides and there' probably be a little Valley gutter or something down here but it' be very easy to just continue moving that parking to the West for nominal cost so if you want to add two stuff you had two stalls you want four stalls you had four you just keep moving to the West now obviously As you move you might Lo you're going to lose Green Space Andor trees um but in terms of construction that is a pretty easy change how did you land on8 to 10 spots in this original proposal so uh commissioner Waterman I think I think it was either you or commissioner gustofson um there's still going to be on street parking but we think this will get enough cars off of the roads that you can you can do this and people are going to they're going to park in the closest spot right so they're there they're going to park here and then hopefully they're going to continue to park on the side adjacent to the park and fill that in as opposed to trying to fill in on the other side of the road now if there's one or two cars on the other side of the road we don't think that's a problem but right now they're stacking up car after car after car after car in front of the residents to the point where you know this gentleman saying he can't even get his boat out of his garage which as you all know I fish quite a bit that would be very frustrating for me if I can't go out and fish the day I want to but um I mean and he does right he has to go over there and ask whose car it is and get moved that but that's a frustration so but we think that this will take enough burden off with the Moto cars we're seeing out there if we're seeing 15 is kind of the the the spot where it's getting very stressful if we can get 8 to 10 off the road that's very helpful would we identify some as disability parking or we most likely would identify that first one or two as handicap accessible any other comments actually I think we should make that part of our motion I think one would be I believe according to our engineer we we'd work with the engineers on what the requirements are but um for sure we want to Pride one any other comments one want to make a motion I assume we need a motion on this I'll make a motion to approve a staff recommend Commendation as stated second all in favor I I I any opposed so the motion was for Street adjacent parking recommendation and then we will um we'll work with the engineer team to see what the requirements are for handicap accessibility but we'll make sure we provide at least one thanks that I don't do so either so commissioner terms yes just wanted to get in front of this this in front of the commissioner um no no action is needed tonight but I just wanted to present it to you so you understand where you're at in your term and whether you have the option to renew or um let's just say it's your option to renew hopefully everybody comes back but just want to make sure everybody knew what when their term was expiring as we come up February 28th is the last day of the the current term I'm the only one that can't right since it's my I believe you are done commissioner Crabtree sad day in February of [Laughter] 2026 we should no I'm just kidding we we could have another pandemic you could get another year no thanks thanks for the offer though Adam W I'm sorry I like you but I gracious referendum results thank you chair members of the commission uh WRA strategies was our Communications uh Team liaison or uh contractor so they provided a a postelection summary of that 2024 referendum where those three um referendum questions had failed so I just thought I'd provide that to you and I can try to answer any questions you might have but um really just providing the information anyone have any comments or questions all right action updates thank you chair I just wanted to provide some updates on a few things that the commission has worked on I know it's been a while since we've met but dener Park uh we've done some initial site grading actually we just awarded the the city council just awarded a contract to do some final grading out there so that we can hit the ground running in uh spring of 2025 where we will fulfill the master plan that was included in your packet we do have a playground design which if you haven't seen that I think that one turned out really neat it's actually a nod I can't remember if I mentioned in there but it it's a nod to the to the family that the park is named after that you may recall Jack denzer he was the owner of Jack's 76 service station down on Belding bike Belding Crossing which I played Little League baseball for his team and it was the colors right so there's a little hidden seven and a six in there as a balance beam I did talk to the family and mentioned that we were doing that I wanted to make sure that we weren't bringing up any bad memories it was all good memories and they confirmed that this was very very neat they're very appreciative so I thought that turned out really neat and I'm pretty yeah pretty proud of that one so um just let you know that we're moving forward on that and and we'll be working on that probably all next spring and summer and you know maybe we'll be ready by fall but we'll see where where construction season takes us C Grove Trailway Corridor habit habitat restoration I did include the letter that we sent out um commissioner Krab made the good suggestion to get back getting back in front of the residents so we did send that letter out and let them know that we are doing some work there so spent the summer um killing out the vegetation and now actually starting tomorrow they're going to do some of that tree editing work so they'll be in there doing a lot of tree removal tomorrow preparing the site for that habitat uh Prairie restoration Woodland Restoration in those areas closer to the homes we do have a couple of sheds that have to be removed from the property I've met with both those homeowners so we're in a good spot there in terms of getting that mitigated so um things are moving well there any questions on those first two before I keep running through and then moving on to ultman Mississippi Dunes Park grants as you may recall we got $350,000 Park grants for each of those so 350 for Mississippi dunes and 350 for ultman uh Mississippi Dunes we're just holding tight right now as we try to figure out if there's additional 3M settlement priority to money um and then also there's probably some um Fisheries funding for for the for the boat ramps and things like that so we're trying to piece we're trying to figure out how we can piece all these improvements together before we um start spending any specific one but um that's a good start there with the 350,000 the ultman because that one expires a little bit sooner than the Mississippi Dunes we do want to get started on that one so we are doing plans and specifications right now for that and we're hoping to have that presented to council by January so that we can actually start to bid out um that project sometime this late winter early um spring and then the last is the Kingston Park Building um we've gone back and forth on the design trying to get the budget um and the final design into the right spot for for Council um we've separated the shelter from the building which is saved some costs and also oper um offered the ability to to run simultaneous program with two different types of events or uses with the shelter over here and and the building over here with a separation in the middle so we're working on that but we are at about 90% um completion of the plans and specifications and then we'll bring that back to council for final approval and then um I would expect that to they uh right now like the direction of the council council is to um construct in the spring I'm sorry the summer of 2026 so we probably wouldn't bid that out until um end of 25 or early 26 after Strawberry Fest the goal would be after Strawberry Fest and after Fourth of July to break ground yeah or just do a winter construction so one of those but the the goal is to avoid June through September with all the major events any questions on those that's all I have great oh I'm sorry one more city council did approve the site power upgrades to Kingston Park so they they wanted to get ahead of that so we have to bring power in from Indian Boulevard with the new Transformer there's not sufficient power there for the new building we're planning plus they wanted to add power around the the Central Parking Lot there so that bid did get accepted by Council and that project will happen this spring so for Strawberry Fest we'll actually have outlets on all the um all the uh parking lot lights but we're also adding parking lot lights so I want to say there's 10 10 parking lot lights that will not have power outlets on them so when we have vendors uh for food truck festival Strawberry Fest Fourth of July they'll have a spot to get power so be excited Jen be excited I feel it oh he's not camera showing excitement all right River Oaks update River Oaks do we keep going nice are you on updates yeah yeah yeah just submitted the staff reports and educational material if you have questions on it we can take them otherwise that was just informational only historic preservation commission comments um yeah I guess I'll turn it over to commissioner Olsen yeah I did if I'm glad we're running early tonight because I did have a couple things I want to talk about I I was able to attend the um advisory committee on historic preservation which I'm arly aison to that committee so I attended their last meeting and I want that agenda and all that's available to everybody um you guys can go look at it but I asked them to pull in which Zach did to our packet the 1945 to 1990 context study and what that really my sense of what it means is they are investing in a study of the development that took place during that time period so buildings structures um things like that of significance that are man-made they're going to create an inventory of what might be worth preserving from a historical standpoint so I just thought it was a really interesting thing and they're supposed to have their final report I think in June of next year so I'm going to make it my business to try to be at that meeting but if I can't I might even ask that one of you attend because I I really think it'd be neat to see the output from that um because they're really getting a view of everything that they're kind of responsible for in that window of time um so I just thought it was really interesting um then the second thing which is on the slide in front of us at the county park the last County uh parks and Open Spaces commission meeting uh one of the agenda items was uh regarding the land and water Legacy program and just to remind you that was a program passed several years ago for by Washington County residents that approved what is similar to a local option sales tax although I'm not sure that it's under that rule but it was a sales tax and it funded in effect $20 million worth of bonds that have been used to create conservation easements on lots and lots of property in Washington County now one of the neat things about this is it's extremely extremely um popular with land owners because they can receive a pretty nice sum of money just like the city of Cottage Grove received in order to purchase some of the land for our park at M Mississippi Dunes a big chunk was it 250 Zack or 350 $500,000 $500,000 came out of that Fund in order to help us purchase that Park in the form of a conservation easement which does restrict what we're allowed to do on that Park so we use that money to buy land in the areas that we want to keep as natural as possible so the County Commissioners made the decision this year not to put this on the ballot because we're almost out of money and they were nervous that there might not be success in the ballot plus both the cities of Woodbury and Cottage Grove approached the county and asked them not to put it on the ballot because they both had local option sales tax uh initiatives on the ballot this year so what happened was the county found a way to fund the program for another two years so we have money to work with we're looking at new properties to put easements on so this is really really good news and then we'll go to the voters again in 2026 is the current plan so I just wanted to bring you up to date on the land and water Legacy program I am a big big fan of this program the thing about land is once it's gone the houses are built on the golf course we're never going to get that land back again to have for a park or to just conserve so I am really invested in the notion that we should approve this if we do put it on for about in 2026 so I'm going to keep coming forward and sharing with you all the great things that are happening this is one of them so they in in every each and every one of these there's a partnership with somebody else so it's not just Washington County it's another type of program that is putting money and effort into helping us conserve these lands so in this case they using uh a grant of funding and maybe we go to the next slide now uh tells a little bit what this is all about and you all this is in your package so you can dig into it more but in Woodbury there are three Parks Prairie Ridge Park Valley Creek Park and La Lake Park where we have helped put we've put easements on land owned now because of the money that they were able to get by the City of Woodbury and for the first time the county is going to actually execute on some of these stewardship action plans in these three parks and that's going to happen over the course of this summer and particularly Prairie Ridge is right off of 19 just as you're getting up to uh 94 so we have a great opportunity to watch them do this work lot of work that Zach and his team do all the time right here in the city parks of Cottage Grove but let's just scroll through now I think there's one for each of them so you can see what's happening at this park they're re re making these Woodlands come back and these are the Acres they're restoring and how much they're enhancing now on the next Park you'll see it's not as much at Valley Creek and then the next one is even a little less at L Lake but this lake is really important all these things have to meet these criteria for the land and water Legacy program and now the county and they're nervous about it too it's interesting to listen to them talk to us about what they're setting out to do because they've never used these funds to actually make improvements before because you're not required to make the improvements you're not require required to do anything as a land owner you're required not to do things like not build gas stations there and stuff like that but they want to and I think it's the right thing to do the City of Woodbury wants to so in this partnership uh they're now investing and actually executing on these um plans which will recover the land into a more natural state so it's just really exciting and you can probably tell by how we talk about I'm kind of into it and so thanks for let me share with you let's see what the I can't remember what the rest of the slides are but here's what they're going to do next so it's just we are blessed to live not only in a wonderful City but also in a wonderful County it's extremely well financed and is doing a lot of the lot of the right things and we're the last Bastion between development and the St cry River so we need to do these things and um thanks for letting me share this with you and and I'll just jump on too if I may that the restoration component is uh is a huge boost to us because as commissioner Olson says typically they'll help you get the land but then once you get the land you have the stewardship plan that You' put in place and the city's responsible for doing that on their own which we usually get grant funding support from Minnesota DNR or others but now if we can get uh county Support to do that that's a huge win for all of us so because it's one thing to have a land it's another thing to do something positive with that land so this is this is a great opportunity any questions dve or Zach I guess I work for the county too but I'm sorry oh I if there's any questions if anybody has questions I I love talking about this otherwise also the time for any other commissioner comments on any other topic well I apologize for being late today everyone I went through the entire day thinking it was Tuesday and uh Sam informed me it was not could have piic you should have picked Friday if you're gonna be thinking that way any other commission comments we don't have Council here any no other than I I put in all the agendas since the last so if you have anything on there I can try to answer them if you had any questions with any topics the council has been considering taking action on I'll move to a journ anyone want to second that second all in favor right we're adjourned who seconded it me Sam e