This is a transcript of the **Apple Valley Park and Recreation Advisory Committee** meeting from April 6, 2023. Based on the context provided and the dialogue, I have identified the speakers, including city staff and committee members. *** **[0:00]** [Music] **[0:34] Chair:** This is the April 6, 2023, meeting of the Apple Valley Park and Recreation Advisory Committee. Welcome everyone. As is our standard practice, I invite you all to stand and face the flag and we can recite the Pledge of Allegiance. **[1:00] All:** [Reciting Pledge of Allegiance] **[1:13] Chair:** Has the committee had a chance to review the agenda for tonight? Are there any questions, comments, or changes? If not, I'd like a motion to approve it as published. **[1:33] Committee Member:** So moved. **[1:35] Chair:** We have a motion to approve. Is there a second? **[1:37] Committee Member:** Second. **[1:38] Chair:** Motion and a second. All of those in favor say aye. **[1:42] Committee Members:** Aye. **[1:43] Chair:** Opposed? That motion is carried unanimously. And we have 10 minutes carved off our audience participation. Is there anybody in the audience who cares to address the committee for something that is not already on the agenda? **[1:58] Chair:** Seeing nobody coming forward, we can move on to the approval of the minutes from our last meeting, which was in March. Again, has the committee had a chance to review the minutes as published? Comments? Questions? If not, we'll look for a motion to approve those as published. **[2:20] Committee Member:** So moved. **[2:22] Committee Member:** Second. **[2:23] Chair:** We have a motion and a second to approve the minutes as published. All those in favor say aye. **[2:28] Committee Members:** Aye. **[2:29] Chair:** Opposed? That motion is carried. **[2:44] Chair:** We are going to schedule a special meeting—a joint meeting with the advisory committee and the city council—that's coming Thursday, April 13th. Eric, you want to just talk about that for a minute? Or what are you looking for from us? **[2:53] Eric Carlson (Parks and Recreation Director):** Mr. Chair, members of the committee. So next Thursday, the city council has their regular informal meeting before their regular city council meeting. Next Thursday, Peter Leatherman from The Morris Leatherman Company will be giving a presentation to the city council at the informal meeting on the results of the community survey we did related to a potential Park Bond referendum. So, we're asking the committee to set a special informal meeting with the city council next Thursday at 5:30 PM so that any of you that want to attend that meeting can attend together if you want to. By setting a special meeting, all of you can be there in the room hearing the conversation that Peter has with the city council about the results of the survey. **[3:48] Chair:** Looking for a motion on that, right? **[3:51] Eric Carlson:** Correct. **[3:52] Committee Member:** I'll make a motion to schedule a special informal joint meeting with the city council on Thursday, April 13, 2023, at 5:30 PM. **[4:01] Committee Member:** I'll second that. **[4:02] Chair:** Okay, we have a motion and a second. All of those in favor say aye. **[4:06] Committee Members:** Aye. **[4:07] Chair:** Opposed? Okay, we have that meeting to look forward to. And then Brandon Anderson is going to talk to us here about some landscaping plans, I understand. Brandon, please. **[4:15] Brandon Anderson (City Engineer):** Mr. Chair, members of the committee. I am Brandon Anderson, City Engineer with the city of Apple Valley. I have with me Sean Jurgens with SRF, a landscape architect representing the city of Apple Valley on this as well. So this evening, staff is seeking input from the committee on some review of various concepts of a gathering space amenity and trailhead to be incorporated at the location indicated in your first slide at the Riser Apartments, which is off Founders Lane near Visago and Galaxy. **[5:02] Brandon Anderson:** Back in 2015, as part of an original development agreement between the Dakota County CDA and the City of Apple Valley, this empty site was a piece of property or easement carved off to host a plaza and trailhead for future development. As part of that agreement, before the site could be developed with the CDA, an escrow or cash was required for purchase of and construction of said plaza. That money was to be used for construction on it, and then once the plaza was constructed, it shall be maintained by the city of Apple Valley. **[5:45] Brandon Anderson:** The plaza and trailhead design is led by the city; it wasn't led by the development at the time when it came through the process. So we're at the stage where we're bringing those concepts to lead what that trailhead and plaza should look like. This is a copy of the easement—the light's not very bright right in the middle of the property. It's about mid-block on Founders Lane. There was a piece carved off to hold this trailhead easement location. It's right where the red dot is, right across from where the driveways intersect Founders Lane. **[6:32] Brandon Anderson:** The buildings are complete and occupied at this time. What was done as part of the construction phasing with those buildings is they built everything they were required to as part of the development that met city ordinance. Trails are paved and connected around the pond. Obviously, you're in a ring route area where we have the enhanced sidewalks, lighting, and some other features. We did upgrade a bunch of the ADA and push buttons throughout this area as well the last few years. The empty piece, actually, we had them just leave it mulched until we could come forward with some sort of a concept for a plan for construction in 2023. So that's the location of this small trailhead area. **[7:18] Brandon Anderson:** All three concepts that we're going to present, we are looking at adding enhanced pedestrian crossings and we'll take that to final design. It is in need of some crosswalks; we're noticing high pedestrian traffic, and especially if it's going to be used as a trailhead and gathering space, you're going to want enhanced pedestrian crossings here. The fortunate thing is Founders Way is one-way, so we're placing the pedestrian crossings—that location is kind of fixed in comparison to the concepts because all your turning movements will make a right turn from this site and a left turn moving to the right in the one-way direction. So you'll never have turning movements conflict with the pedestrians, which helps. **[8:05] Brandon Anderson:** We did offset the driveways to prevent people from driving through, but the one thing that's fixed on all the concepts is the use of an enhanced pedestrian crosswalk. And then I'll let Sean... you can see the paving areas on here that are already paved and built and we're looking at the concepts to tie into that. So Sean is going to walk through all three concepts, what the theming was behind them, and then we want to leave it open for input. I know we presented a similar idea for the gathering space down at Orchard Place not too long ago, but we're looking for similar feedback for that. So with that, I’ll turn it over to Sean. **[8:48] Sean Jurgens (Landscape Architect, SRF):** Thanks, Brandon. So this is a photo we took last fall when we were just kind of getting into the concept development. You see the new building there in the background. This is looking, call it upstream Founders Way, kind of to the northwest. The driveway into the property is on the left; the driveway is now finished, the boulevard has been sodded, and there's a trail. You can kind of see the labels on the bottom there that indicate where that grass boulevard and the trail are, and then that yellow box roughly represents the area we're looking at for the trailhead. **[9:32] Sean Jurgens:** You see the building in the background; there will also be some landscaping to kind of buffer in between the trailhead plaza area and the residential building. Being cognizant of window locations, we want to provide some privacy between the public use and the private residents, but also not block their windows. You'll see some ideas for landscaping. Founders Lane itself is on the right, the far right side just off the page. **[10:04] Sean Jurgens:** We'll start looking at Concept A. Maybe just another caveat here is all these concepts involve kind of the same elements: we've got paving for the plaza, seating for folks, bike racks, and potentially a bike fix-it station. There's opportunity for shade, whether that be like a pergola or a shade sail. Regarding signage, I saw you folks looking at wayfinding signage concepts and that was going to be one of my questions for you: if you want to incorporate a sign, whether it be wayfinding—you know, how is this site connected to the rest of your system via trails and so forth—or it could be educational/historical type signage as well. **[10:55] Sean Jurgens:** There's three concepts: A, B, and C. Ultimately we'll take feedback from you folks and we can kind of mix and match if there's things you like or don't like and maybe want to blend together. So with that, Concept A, as you'll see in a moment, there's a concrete plaza at the northeast corner close to where the sidewalk and Founders Lane intersect. There's an L-shaped bench at the southeast corner, bike racks, and an opportunity for colored concrete to help define the areas. I realize it may be small on your page, but you can kind of see the concrete there at the center with landscaping wrapping around it. The L-shaped bench is at the lower left bottom and it's beneath a triangular shade sail. That's what we're looking at there. **[11:38] Sean Jurgens:** Part of the idea is that the lighter gray concrete area at the center, where you see kind of the circular shapes... what we're thinking about with all these concepts is that formerly Southport Airport was in this part of the city. Thinking about how the idea of the airport, which was formerly there, can be part of the theming of the plaza and trailhead. On the right side, you see what sandblasted or engraved concrete looks like. The idea is maybe the pattern or the shapes of, whether it be airplanes or kind of flight paths, would be engraved into the concrete itself to kind of tell some of that story. And then as I mentioned, landscaping kind of wraps around to be a combination of perennial grasses and flowers closer up to the plaza area and then lower maintenance landscaping further back closer to the building. **[12:28] Sean Jurgens:** Lastly, you see the red rectangle at the center—that's a red bench. One of the ideas that was presented to us is there could be this idea of a "red bench" as something repeated throughout Apple Valley as a common icon or something people would notice. You could say "I'll meet you at the red bench." That could be a literal red bench, it could be something unique to this site, or it could be something that's repeated in other locations, but we try to show at least one idea in each of these concepts where that was allowed for. Feel free to interrupt me, I'll jump to the next one, but if you have questions let me know and we can certainly answer questions at the end. **[13:20] Sean Jurgens:** Concept B is a little different where the paved area moves more to the middle of the site or the easement area. It has a different geometry based on the idea of the former airport and then there's a wood pergola to provide some shade. I will say the pergola doesn't necessarily have to be wood; it could be a low-maintenance material—aluminum is common, and there's other low or no-maintenance materials available as well. For extra amenities, there's bike racks, the fix-it station, and the trash and recycling bins. **[14:00] Sean Jurgens:** Here's what that looks like. In the lower right corner, you see a historic air photo of the former airport runway. The idea of an angular geometry—that's what we have here: a sidewalk or a path coming perpendicular off of the Founders Lane sidewalk and that aligns directly with the pedestrian crossing improvement that Brandon talked about. **[14:26] Brandon Anderson:** If you aren't aware of the history with the one-way streets, Founders Lane—the angled one-way street—is the old airport runway. We always get questions about why the triangle piece was laid out the way it was. The picture on the right tells a more historical story, which is why a lot of the theming with the trailhead goes back to the historic significance of what this property used to be. **[14:58] Chair:** You know, I mean... it'd be interesting at some place in this development to have an explanation of what you've done. I mean, why is it this way? Let us carry on. **[15:10] Sean Jurgens:** And that's exactly where I was going. We're trying to look for ways to tell that story without being so literal. I think my last concept does have a location for an educational sign, which is one way to do it, but we're looking for other clues maybe to tell that story too—the shape of the geometry and the engraving and some of those other things that play along with it. **[15:40] Sean Jurgens:** Again, in this example, the pergola is that rectangle that's just off to the left where the two paths intersect. To the top side is that red bench that I mentioned, and then to the right side of the paths are the bike racks and the fix-it station. Again, landscaping that kind of wraps the site. Here you see the larger green circles are our larger trees—canopy trees—and they kind of reinforce the shape of the main path there and provide some shade. **[16:21] Sean Jurgens:** Lastly, the final concept has a larger concrete area. Again, it has many of the same amenities with the bike racks and the seating. The shade feature here is a large cantilevered umbrella, so it's offset, which means the post is off to the side and then the umbrella can reach over without having a post that's in the way of people walking around or moving around. And then I mentioned the signage that I'll talk about here in a second. **[17:01] Sean Jurgens:** I guess one of the key features of this is we found that unique bench—on the photo on the right is a bench that is kind of evocative of a propeller, which is kind of cool. The coloration could be modified, so the metal that frames the wood slats can come in any color. That could be made red if we wanted that to be the red bench idea, or it could be kept as it's shown here. You see an example of the cantilevered sunshade below that and an image of a sign. Really, that sign, as I mentioned, could be wayfinding, it could be historical, educational, could be both. That can be included in any of these concepts; it doesn't necessarily have to be this one. With this design, you see more of a geometric shape, a rectangle shape with some cutouts for planting beds in the seating area. **[17:54] Sean Jurgens:** And then finally here, something that's common to all these is the improved crossing that Brandon mentioned. We're still kind of looking at that with the traffic folks to understand what would be needed. There's a unique situation with the double one-ways, so there'd have to be a little bit of thinking about where that's located and how utilities and so forth are coordinated with it. That red arrow and the photo on the right shows the approximate location of where that would be. Obviously, that's an old photo when the building was still under construction. Again, our request is just to hear feedback from you folks. We're happy to take questions and look forward to hearing what you have to say. **[18:43] Lisa Hiebert (Councilmember):** Where did the idea of a red bench come from? Is that something that the city's been talking about or is that a concept that you guys thought of? **[18:49] Brandon Anderson:** Our former community development director had that red bench, and it came from "Meet me at the red bench" as a theme. It's kind of just a gathering place that people could identify with in a network of parks and things. A lot of it had to do with sitting in that red bench and watching the sunset, so it was oriented or placed in a way that you could just sit at the red bench. That's where it came from; it had been talked about for a couple years here. Because we do have the theme with the ring route and some of that, it made sense to tie it in. **[19:33] Lisa Hiebert:** I like that going in. And there's already red benches in that ring route, but now you're identifying it with something that people can truly relate to and maybe tie it to the rest of the system. I personally tend to prefer the option that kind of moves the concrete area a little further away from the road—Option B—where there's kind of landscaping on both sides. I think that would make for a nice seating area. I think that I really like the idea of the bicycle fix-it and was going to ask if there was a way to include like a bottle filling station or something like that as part of this? I don't know if all the utilities are baked, but just thinking of usability—you know, if you're riding your bike and you're hot in the summer and you want to sit in the shade, it'd be great to be able to fill your water while you're doing it, fix your bike. **[20:19] Brandon Anderson:** I don't recall if there's water available for services without tearing up the street. I'll definitely look into it because those are great amenities, but I'm not sure it's available at the price point we're dealing with. **[20:30] Committee Member:** That's fine. Out of the three shading options, in order, I like the umbrella first, the pergola second, and I am not a fan of sun shades ever because you've got to take them down. **[20:59] Committee Member:** Mr. Chair, I have a question. The trail that this is going to be the trailhead starting point for—that just goes around the ponds behind the development, is that correct? **[21:11] Brandon Anderson:** It actually connects all the ponds behind the development. And then it also... well, there's obviously Galaxy, you have the ring route along Founders. There is a trail that connects behind the Tavern along the stormwater pond. In the upper right corner, there is a pond that loops around the ponds to the south of this, and then it ties over to the retail with... we added sidewalk extensions on the roadway over there. So there is some connectivity to it. **[21:50] Committee Member:** The city will maintain the trails? **[21:53] Brandon Anderson:** Correct. It's all an easement through the ponding area. I believe there's a piece of the trail that's not constructed yet that we're phasing with parks availability through the middle of the pond. It's identified and graded out, like down the middle between the two ponds. It's all ready to go. It wasn't something the developer was required to put in; it'll be future city trail when park staff can fund them and get it in there. **[22:38] Brandon Anderson:** There is quite a bit of connectivity. That empty property next to the Visago site, directly adjacent to Visago there that you'll see—we're planning a sidewalk connection through there to get to the Dunn Brothers. So you really do have some pedestrian connectivity. We're seeing the 55+ [population], you're seeing a lot more movement through here, and there's connection to some of the retail and housing. **[22:52] Chair:** And Brandon, as you go east on Founders and you go around the pond that's behind Tavern, and if you go north, you're basically walking to Kelly Park. You know, I just had comments that I wrote down as you were going through your ideas. I mean, I like that sandblasted concrete; I think those have always just... I've always liked that. I like the pergola idea. I mean, I'm opposed to the sunshade and all that because the city's going to maintain this, and those things last a couple years and then they're in tatters. If you could make the pergola out of Trex or some composite material, I think that would be a great asset. And you're right, we were just talking about city signs, wayfinding signs—you know, maybe leave the wayfinding something, leave a spot for the wayfinding sign until we can get our ducks together and figure out what we're going to use for that, and then put a city sign in there. The storyboard/education sign—I think that's an excellent idea. I mean, I quite frankly had forgotten all about the whole airport concept, but you're right, that's right where Target is. That'd be a great piece of city history to document. **[24:11] Eric Carlson:** Mr. Chair, if I could interrupt just briefly too. On the pergola side of things, if we could focus on a metal pergola, it would definitely help out from the maintenance side of things. **[24:25] Chair:** Would you prefer the pergola or the umbrella? **[24:28] Eric Carlson:** I personally prefer the pergola. **[24:30] Chair:** Then you mentioned larger canopy trees. You know, I think that all these little dwarf trees kind of drive me crazy, so I'd be in favor of that too. **[24:43] Brandon Anderson:** Some of the landscape was... you do have it in close proximity to housing and windows. We do have to create a soft screening buffer from the general public, so we were trying to balance that. That's where the combination of hard and soft kind of comes in. **[24:55] Lisa Hiebert:** I too am leaning towards Option B. What I really like about it is I like the direct connection with the pedestrian crossing. It feels really natural; I think that that feels safer for directing the flow of people into it. I like that we have the natural trees and greenery on both sides from the trail, and it feels like a nice place to sit and rest. I think that's really a cool concept to kind of celebrate the runway there. I think that's really great. I like the propeller benches, and I don't know if we can do a red propeller bench just to tie into that? I think it's different; it's unique. The one thing that would be kind of fun—I don't know how you would do it and if you did any concrete—is to take the idea of flight from the airport and the runway and then move it into that natural flight of maybe birds and migration. So you kind of get that... it brings in that natural flight piece too. I don't know how you would necessarily do that, but I think that would be a really great way to buy a nice tie-in. But yeah, I'm really leaning towards B because, again, I think it just really lines up with mostly with that pedestrian crossing and the flow of traffic. **[26:30] Committee Member:** I would agree. I like B too, just because it puts stuff back further away from—even though this is just a driveway, it still is separating it even more. But you said that pedestrian crossing is not... you're not certain where that's going to be, or the location is fixed? **[26:50] Brandon Anderson:** The location is fixed. One of the things we have to look at is the flashing—there's some criteria for that that we've got to just look at. One of our concerns was, being that it's a two-way/one-way, if you get a pedestrian that pushes the button and then the first car stops, there's a risk that the second car doesn't see it. We either have to look at some advance signage along with it, or it may not check the boxes for the criteria for the flashers to be an option. So we know there's going to be an enhanced crossing; the level of detail to the type of crossing I'm still working out, though. But it would be right where it is; it'll match up with the path. **[27:35] Chair:** Well, Brandon, are you talking about the flashers embedded in the road surface like in front of the hospital? **[27:40] Brandon Anderson:** No, we've looked at those and they are very expensive and they don't last. We're looking at similar to what you see in the picture: the stand-up flashing ones you see in a lot of school zones. People push the button, they're activated right then. The biggest thing with them that I find is you need advanced warning so that you give cars a chance to see that it's flashing and you have time to react and slow down before you get to it. **[28:10] Committee Member:** Tying into kind of what Lisa was saying about tying into natural flight and stuff... I understand that this is high level, but with low-maintenance plants, I think that we've heard as we've gathered information for the potential Park Bond referendum that natural resources and sustainability are important. So just a recommendation to look to incorporate natives. And as you talk about informational signs, that might be a good call-out for that. **[28:46] Committee Member:** Yeah, Brandon and Sean, nice job guys, nice presentation. I just got three comments. I think the gathering space is important. I’ll be another one to thumbs-up with the pergola; I think that works and seems to provide a nice look of class. And having a red bench around there—no reason not to, I think it's a nice touch. Same with the airport story; it just gives a little uniqueness, so thumbs up on that. And lastly, you know, I'm kind of astonished at all the apartments that are going up around there and just because of that, I think it's important to have that bike fix-it station because those residents don't have bike pumps. If they have a bike, it'd be nice to just be able to bring it down there and do the fix up at the gathering space. So that's my feedback. **[29:36] Committee Member:** Mentioning the apartments, there'll probably be a lot of dog walkers around here too. Is there any way to incorporate anything for... now, I know we're not going to have a water station probably, right? But have something for... you don't want people to throw their poop bags in there, but... **[30:08] Brandon Anderson:** So, the other apartments all along here have incorporated their own dog facilities. You'll notice green grass all the time on certain sides of the buildings or in fenced-in areas; they bring in artificial turf and some other things—they're providing it as part of the complex. So I guess we didn't look at that specifically, knowing that... I would prefer to get direction from Mike and Eric if that was something that they wished to see. **[30:23] Eric Carlson:** Yeah, with the local apartments having that kind of amenity, probably we can stay out of that game in that immediate area. We'll let the apartment complexes take care of it themselves and that's one less thing that we have to worry about and fill bag stations, etc. But there will be garbage and recycling cans here. **[30:52] Committee Member:** Correct. **[30:57] Chair:** Timeframe—is this going to happen this summer? **[31:00] Brandon Anderson:** The goal was to get feedback from here, take these comments, refine three concepts into one concept, get the final okay, take it to city council by the May timeframe. This is a low enough price point project that we can send it out for quotes and have it done by fall is the goal. **[31:16] Chair:** That's great. Well, that's exciting. Anything else? **[31:17] Lisa Hiebert:** I'll just add one thing that I just wanted to call out. On Option A, you have the interpretive engraving that recognizes the Native American heritage here in the site. If we're going to do some interpretive signs, I would like to see that included as we talk about the history. If we're including all of it, I think it's important to recognize that. **[31:45] Sean Jurgens:** Blend the concrete patterns and engravings from A into... **[31:50] Lisa Hiebert:** Maybe not necessarily the concrete engravings, but if we're going to have an interpretive sign talking about the airport and the history, I just think that, again, adding a piece and recognizing the longer history of our community is important. If there's a way to incorporate it, I would not say no to that. But I'm thinking, kind of as we tell the story, the significance of this location for our city—I think that makes perfect sense. **[32:21] Sean Jurgens:** Nice suggestion. **[32:23] Brandon Anderson:** Okay, so anything else? Great feedback, we appreciate all the comments. **[32:37] Chair:** It's like we have a fairly unanimous B. I think the concept's put together, or at least pull a few parts back into piece. We've had fun. Thank you. **[32:51] Brandon Anderson:** Thank you. **[32:52] Sean Jurgens:** Thank you. Very helpful to hear your feedback, appreciate it. Thanks. **[33:04] Eric Carlson:** Okay, actually the last item on our agenda is a division update from... Nick, are you going to... Bill's going to present? **[33:07] Eric Carlson:** Mr. Chairman, members of the commission. Tonight we have two updates from two of our Recreation Supervisors. Bill Byrd's going to go first and talk about some of our youth and family programming and special events. So we'll turn it over to Bill. **[33:38] Bill Byrd (Recreation Supervisor):** All right, thanks Eric. Good evening, Mr. Chair and Parks and Recreation Committee. My name is Bill Byrd and I'm a Recreation Supervisor. My focus is youth and family programming and special events, among other things that I get pulled into, but that's my primary one. Just going to give you an overview of kind of where we're at and what we're doing. **[33:55] Bill Byrd:** When I approach youth and family activities, we look for variety, we look for filling niches, we look for trends—what's in and what's not in. I no longer have my built-in advisors at home; my kids are all grown up, so I always used to bounce ideas off of them but that's over. And then a mix of in-house instruction as well as contracted specialized instructors. The other big one—and it's getting bigger all the time—I think it's important for cost sharing, staff sharing, resource sharing: our partnerships. We have partnered, or I have in the past year, with Dakota County Library, Bogarts, the Zombie Boardshop in Burnsville (it's a skateboard and snowboard outfit), the school district, and the Arts Foundation of course—very important. **[35:05] Bill Byrd:** For Midwinter Fest, we partnered with the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority and local business "Card My Yard," for example. We also have partnerships within the city of Apple Valley; all the various departments work together to put on programs, activities, events—those kind of things. So that's just kind of an overview. **[35:29] Bill Byrd:** As far as specific areas of programming for youth and family, our primary areas right now are arts and crafts, cooking, music, STEM (which is science, technology, engineering, and math), sports (primarily the little ones—all the ages until the athletic associations can take them under their wing), and holiday events and programs. Some specific examples: we had a Christmas celebration with bowling with Santa at Bogarts, we had our traditional Skate with Santa at the arena. I'm in full-blown Easter mode right now; we had an outdoor egg hunt in the snow and mud on Tuesday. Kids loved it, parents loved it, we had fun. We've got a lot of Easter events coming up in the next day or two. **[36:34] Bill Byrd:** Trunk or Treat—that was one we added two years ago and it just took off; it exploded. We probably had about 2,000 kids show up last year for that event, and that's a partnership with Parks and Recreation, the Police Department, Fire Department, and a lot of the city departments—they put vehicles in the event. And then of course, we've tried to simplify things too just to get people out in the parks. We did a sledding event where you scheduled a bonfire where you bring your dog—just simple things trying to get people into the parks and engaged. **[37:21] Bill Byrd:** Then we get into looking at summer, if it ever comes. We have our traditional playground programs, summer camps, your traditional what you think of as outdoor day camps, sports camps... we have a chess camp this year, skateboard camp, those kind of things. One thing that we didn't do last year because of the staffing was a Puppet Wagon—that was a big disappointment. I think we're well on our way to having a puppet season this year; the hiring is going well. So that's coming up starting once school's out. **[38:10] Bill Byrd:** And then one other thing that's kind of overlooked sometimes in the youth area—I almost forgot about it too, but I think it's really important—is the day-to-day open gyms in the community center. I can show you... I'll just kind of get into some visuals here. This was our Skate with Santa event at the sports arena. I mentioned collaborations and partnerships. The other one I didn't mention is the "South of the River Recreators" group, which consists of Burnsville, Apple Valley, Eagan, Rosemount, Farmington, Savage, and Lakeville. We get together and do certain events so we can pool our resources and staffing. We do a "Whodunit Hike"—it's a mystery hike down in Lakeville. We had an open house at the skate park and the kids had a blast. Bowling with Santa at Bogarts—that was one of our other partnerships. **[39:02] Bill Byrd:** Getting back to the youth and family open gym programs, I went in and identified some numbers and attendance numbers just for your information. It was interesting to me too, because I see the kids there all the time but I just didn't have a handle on how many kids and families were participating. Our numbers are way up this year; it was obvious. The use is up, pandemic's over, people are out and about. The weather's been horrible, so they're inside in the gyms a lot more. I just wanted to highlight that. **[39:46] Bill Byrd:** The other area I wanted to mention—I'm kind of skipping around a lot—but we have a preschool in the community center, and it's led by Christy Hemphill, who is a certified teacher. We went back and re-evaluated, re-tooled that, and branded it—it's called "Little Orchard" now. It's more identifiable. We are at maximum capacity with a waiting list. So the next step is possibly growing that program; it's been valuable. **[40:17] Committee Member:** Yeah, the Little Orchard program—is there a fee associated with that? **[40:20] Bill Byrd:** There is, yeah. It runs during the school year and yeah, there is a fee. Off the top of my head, I don't know what the fee is but it is fee-based. **[40:34] Eric Carlson:** Mr. Chair, members of the committee, it's $200 per month. Preschool education is becoming increasingly visible at the state level. It's a mix—it's a curriculum-based program, but it branches into some of the recreational aspects that we're focused on as well. **[41:00] Bill Byrd:** And yeah, I mentioned Trunk or Treat—just enormous. If you have never been out there, it's pretty amazing. Huge turnout, a lot of community partners in that one. And of course Midwinter Fest; we moved outdoors completely two years ago and we had a much better weather day this year—a lot warmer, probably double at least double the crowd this year. So that's really growing in a positive direction. **[41:33] Bill Byrd:** It was a lot of fun. The Friday night concerts in Kelly Park—of course we don't run the concerts, but we're an integral part. We're the liaison to the committee as far as being on site and providing support for them, and Mike in our parks department does a lot of support work for them as well. Just wanted to mention them and recognize the Arts Foundation, they've been a great partner. I think that is it. **[42:15] Chair:** Well, you're a busy guy. **[42:17] Bill Byrd:** Just wanted to hit the highlights and if you have any questions beyond this tonight, just let me know and I'd be happy to answer them. **[42:23] Chair:** Thank you. **[42:24] Eric Carlson:** All right Mr. Chair, up next then is Nick Thompson. He's going to talk a little bit about athletics and use of our parks from an athletic perspective. **[42:30] Nick Thompson (Recreation Supervisor):** Hey there Mr. Chair, members of the committee. As Eric said, my name is Nick Thompson. My primary areas that I work with are youth athletics, adult leagues, and then scheduling the fields. That involves both some renters as well as heavy use by the youth athletic organizations in town—and we'll get to those in a second here. **[42:58] Nick Thompson:** Youth Athletics: we have some great partners—to name a few: EVAA, VAA. We have some collaborations that happen including Fusion Softball, Firehawks Lacrosse, and then the Legion Baseball programs as well. They do a great job. I act as the liaison within the city to try to make things as seamless as possible with them. Mike and his crew obviously support them a bunch and we try to help them out where and when we can. **[43:35] Nick Thompson:** Just to give you an idea of some of the scope: we have 91 permitted fields this spring/summer for those youth athletic organizations. Roughly 3,400 youth athletes annually—and that number just pulls from what happens outdoors in the city parks; there's more that happen even in the Apple Valley Community Center. 12,000 hours of local youth athletic organization field use annually. And then they're going to be running eight tournaments this summer, bringing people into our town. Like I said, we appreciate everything that they do. **[44:18] Nick Thompson:** On the field rental and tournament side of things, field rental tends to be adult baseball teams, some club youth baseball, adult soccer teams, private soccer leagues, and baseball and soccer tournaments as well. We are anticipating this year 19—possibly more—multi-facility tournaments, meaning having games at Johnny Cake East, Johnny Cake West, Quarry Point. The fields are very busy most every weekend during the spring, summer, and fall season—extended from May through the end of September. To give you some idea of the scope, last year we brought in $104,000 plus in revenue. That all happens at the very most at $45 per hour—a little quick math in your head, it adds up to a lot of hours. A lot of hours to use. Again, shout out to Mike and his crew for helping make that happen. They're a huge part of it. I try to work hand-in-hand with them and with Dan Bruno, the Athletics Foreman. They've been great to work with. **[45:20] Committee Member:** Excuse me, you've got private soccer leagues—which leagues are those? **[45:24] Nick Thompson:** Liga La Zapata is their name. They play on Sunday evenings out at Johnny Cake Ridge Park East. Salvo is not a user of the facilities anymore; they were a regular renter last year. They are still going to be doing their tournaments—and actually, the tournament got quite a bit bigger this year, so they'll be out there as well. As well as Burnsville Valley United. **[45:50] Lisa Hiebert:** I have a quick question. With Johnny Cake and the parking—it always seems like there's so much going on there and it's always busy. Do we ever get complaints about that, that there's not enough parking? I know they can park across the street and I know they park along... is that Essex? No, it's not Essex. I should know, I live right over there. I drive it all the time and I'm blanking on it. I'm just kind of wondering, from a parking aspect, it doesn't seem like there's any issue there, but as busy as it is, is parking a concern or do the neighbors on 142nd ever have complaints about it? I'm just kind of curious. It's always really busy and I've never seen issues. **[46:44] Nick Thompson:** I haven't gotten them. **[46:45] Eric Carlson:** We haven't heard that at the moment. We actually have some weekends where some tournaments overlap as well, even within the same complex, and we haven't had that. There's a lot of parking places as well as area within the community. But no, at the moment we... **[47:06] Lisa Hiebert:** I just think it's great. Again, I haven't seen issues, just was curious. **[47:11] Nick Thompson:** We try to keep them busy, but we also listen to the community as well. All right, jumping into the adult sports side of things: upcoming this spring, softball is obviously a big program. 115 teams in 2022. We're still kind of landing with that registration for this coming summer, so I don't have finalized numbers for you, but leagues will be rolling out of Johnny Cake five nights a week. **[47:44] Nick Thompson:** Something new for 2023: we have a collaboration—we're trying a collaborative league with Eagan. We'll host roughly half of the games in Apple Valley, the other half in Eagan. Try it out, see how it works. Kind of use that as a pilot program to see if it's something that we can expand upon in the future. We're always looking for creative ways to offer something and multiply our efforts instead of trying to individually divide. **[48:15] Nick Thompson:** Going along with that same note: our kickball program. Bill touched on this, but we have a collaborative South of the River Recreators group. They try to work together to maybe offer some programming that individually would be hard to pull off. You know, for us to each have a kickball league would be really tough; for us to each have a bocce league would be really tough. Kickball is kind of what we house in Apple Valley; bocce is somewhere else. We tried soccer for a while, but the concept of the South River Recreators has been great. It keeps us tied in and allows us to have some kickball in town. **[48:58] Nick Thompson:** Something that's been working well is our free agent list. The original concept was: we have teams that need players and we have players that need teams; let's have a list so when people are signed up, the registered manager can ask for players and I can maybe help them out and keep that team in the league. In short, that has worked; it's been a success. Our list got so massive that I had to do something else with it, which is a good problem. I've actually started to call people on that list and say "Hey, are you able to play? The best way I can help you to play is to get some players brought together." I think we had seven total basketball teams and four of them came from those phone calls and making individual teams. So, I should have had numbers ready for it, but I'll say eight to ten teams out of the past year are just built strictly off the free agent list, which is great. **[49:55] Committee Member:** That's crazy. **[49:57] Nick Thompson:** Continuing into the summer, we have a big volleyball program. We have some skills clinics that are going to be starting off—those are new—in April. Sand leagues will be five nights a week out at Johnny Cake Ridge Park East. Indoor leagues four nights a week in the community center. Staff have done a great job with those helping grow those programs. Speaking of growth, we're projecting around 370 volleyball teams. So, to give you an idea of the scope: we have a really big volleyball program. Those numbers are up about 10% from 2022 and 78% from 2021—that's cheating a little bit because we were coming out of the pandemic, but it's very much looking up and I appreciate all the help I've had along the way to make that happen. **[50:48] Nick Thompson:** Another big upcoming [program]—it might have arrived at this point—is bean bags. We're expanding our outdoor leagues. We have a season June through August, then August through October. We'll have our second season at Valleywood Golf Course. We actually have people playing—the picture to your right, you can see that league happening out there. That filled almost immediately last year, so we're looking to keep that momentum running. As I mentioned, it's a super fast-growing league—119% increase from 2021 to 2022. I think I'm going to pull up [another] 119%, but it's still very much on an upward trajectory. **[51:30] Committee Member:** What's that? These numbers are amazing. **[51:32] Nick Thompson:** It's been cool to watch. So, 149 teams in 2022 and projecting 175+ in 2023, making some assumptions and looking at previous registrations. **[51:44] Nick Thompson:** And pickleball—we can't talk about adult sports without talking about pickleball a little bit. We ramped up our programming. There's always been a lot of open pickleball play in Apple Valley, but we're going to up our programming a little bit. We started offering lessons pretty much year-round at this point. Those are held both indoors at the Apple Valley Community Center and outdoors at the dedicated pickleball courts at Johnny Cake Ridge Park West. We have a new tournament—and that has actually turned into plural tournaments after I submitted this. We have our tournament that the city will be running with the contracted person who does those and does them well. And then the Rotary will be running the tournament it looks like in August as well. **[52:43] Nick Thompson:** There's some new leagues that we're starting out. The evening sessions have already filled—the spring evening session. Summer, I believe, is close to being filled, and the daytime leagues are starting to fill too. Definitely seeing growth in the pickleball programming area. Similar to Bill, I knew we had a lot of people so I took a dive into some data through our registration software: open pickleball at the community center had 3,200 paid admissions annually, and that is in addition to court rentals—it's hard to put an exact number on that. But my point is: it's a very busy program and they use the community center heavily. **[53:36] Nick Thompson:** Open volleyball, badminton, pickleball—we kind of have these sprinkled throughout the week as well. Volleyball on Mondays, Monday evenings, Saturdays, and Sundays. Badminton on Wednesday evenings and Saturdays—badminton is actually a program that's been growing quite a bit over the past year; I'll fill up the Sport Court gym every just about every Wednesday. Pickleball, we have daytime Monday through Friday hours, but we've added weekend hours. So now we actually have open pickleball programming—March through April—seven days a week at the community center. Then again, throwing out a little bit of statistics: we had just a little over 1,900 admissions in last month, March 2023, and roughly 11,000+ annually for all of those programs put together. It's kind of a summary of what I have upcoming. I’ll throw it out to you guys if you have any questions. Or like Bill said, I'm available via email or phone to reach out anytime you might need. **[54:35] Chair:** Good presentation Nick, I don't have any questions. Anybody on the committee have any questions for Nick? No? Great job. **[54:39] Nick Thompson:** Thanks. **[54:40] Eric Carlson:** Mr. Chairman, members of the committee. I just want to thank Nick and Bill for the work that they do to make sure that our parks are alive and being used, and our facilities are alive and being used. Obviously, with the presentations that they gave tonight, you can see that what we're doing is being utilized by the community. It's giving people reasons to get out and exercise and stay healthy. We're also giving people reasons to come to Apple Valley and experience what we have to offer—not only in our parks, but then hopefully in some of our local businesses and whatnot as they choose to go out and wet their whistle and fill their belly after spending some time in our parks. They're doing a great job and we appreciate everything that they are doing. **[55:25] Eric Carlson:** With that, are there any other topics that anyone wants to bring up? **[55:30] Committee Member:** We'll just follow up on the last meeting. We talked about Valleywood potentially getting a report from them about what it would take to pipe in music on the patio or even into the bar area. Do you know if that's in progress or if there's anything going on with that? **[55:54] Eric Carlson:** Yeah, still in progress at this point. **[55:58] Committee Member:** Okay, thank you. **[56:00] Chair:** Well, if there's nothing else, I think we're looking for a motion to adjourn for the evening. **[56:04] Committee Member:** I'll make a motion to adjourn. **[56:06] Chair:** We have a motion and a second to adjourn. All those in favor say aye. **[56:11] Committee Members:** Aye. **[56:12] Chair:** Anybody opposed? Motions carried. Well, good night everyone. **[56:16]** [Music]