[00:00] **Chair:** Foreign—thank you. Thank you. Following the February 13 meeting of the Parks, Recreation, and Natural Resources Commission to order. The mission of the Cottage Grove Parks and Recreation Commission is to create and promote policies, programs, and places that enable active living for a more vibrant community. Tonight we'll discuss a trail naming request, matching funds requests, and our commission meeting agenda. We'll also receive information about the impact of the proposed local option sales tax. Can we get started with roll call? Did everyone have time to review the agenda? Um, can I get a motion to approve the agenda? [00:01] **Commissioner:** Second. [00:01] **Chair:** Any further discussion? All in favor, aye. Opposed? Motion passes, agenda is approved. You had the opportunity to review the minutes. Hello, any comments or questions on the minutes? [00:02] **Commissioner:** I'll move to approve the minutes as submitted. [00:02] **Commissioner:** Second. [00:02] **Chair:** Second. All in favor? All right. Opposed? Okay, motion is passed, minutes are approved. Any open forum this evening? Moving on to presentations. [00:03] **Zac Dockter (Parks and Recreation Director):** Thank you, Chair, members of the Commission. Good evening. We have a commissioner whose last meeting is tonight: Commissioner Eric Witt. Eric joined us in 2016. In 2016, *Hamilton* was a Broadway theater smash, the Chicago Cubs broke the "Goat Curse" and won a World Series, and there was the whole Trump-Clinton election thing that went down. Here in Cottage Grove, we were expanding the bike park (it was in its second year), we were opening Hamlet Park, Cedarhurst Meadows Park West, and of course, we opened our first three dedicated pickleball courts at Granada Park. We were looking for a new Parks, Recreation, and Natural Resources Commissioner, and in steps Mr. Eric Witt. [00:04] **Zac Dockter:** He was appointed in March of 2016 and amicably has served his full term through February of 2023. In Commissioner Witt’s time with us, we've renovated almost all of our park buildings, expanded Hamlet Park to the south, acquired over 300 acres of park and open space plus 30 miles of trails. He was instrumental in guiding that East Ravine Park and Trail Master Plan that will carry us into the next generation of the park system. He saw the openings of Cedarhurst Meadows Park, Oltman, Antlers Ridge, Strawberry Fields Park, while also breaking ground in the Glacial Valley Community Park, our newest community park. He added a lot of unique recreational features like the bike park paddle share, kayak rental program, lots of playgrounds, interpretive signage, and trail mapping, just to name a few. [00:05] **Zac Dockter:** Perhaps Commissioner Witt’s strongest voice was his dedication to the inclusive playground at Woodridge Park. For those that didn't know, Eric served on that task force and also used his connections with the Lions Club to make that park a fantastic experience for our community and visitors. Eric was also instrumental in getting us through the Mississippi Dunes project, which was no easy task, but we made it through. We got a great master plan out of it, and he was instrumental in that process to make sure we have future generations that can enjoy public Shoreland along the Mississippi River. Eric has always been a team player, both helping to get resolution to the topics at hand while also taking on the officer role of Vice Chair. Commissioner Witt considered the public impact as a whole in making decisions and was good about asking questions to gather the context around any situation. He always stayed very connected with the community, so he was speaking for not just himself, but for those in the community as well. [00:06] **Zac Dockter:** So with that, Commissioner Witt, we appreciate your seven-plus years of service with us. We hope you'll continue to stay involved in Parks and Recreation in Cottage Grove, and we have a small token of appreciation for your service. We'll get a picture done. We have a microphone... I'll have Councilmembers... so the plaque says: "The City of Cottage Grove expresses its gratitude for your dedicated service to the community for your role as Parks, Recreation, and Natural Resources Commissioner. Your commitment to making Cottage Grove a happier, healthier, and more vibrant community are sincerely appreciated. Years of service from 2016 to 2023." Okay, thank you very much. [00:07] **Eric Witt (Commissioner):** [Applause] Thank you. [00:07] **Zac Dockter:** Lovely. One, two, three. Perfect. [Applause] My voice is sorry, yeah, I kind of heard it after you said and I put you on the spot. Sorry. [00:08] **Chair:** We can begin our action items. We'll start with the Park Trail naming request from the Olsen family. [00:08] **Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Thank you, Chairman. Sir, if I could, I'd like to recuse myself from this conversation and voting, and I'll step away from the podium. Thank you. [00:09] **Chair:** So this is our third meeting in consideration of the Olsen family request? [00:09] **Zac Dockter:** Yes, Chair, members of the Commission. There's really no new information—I’m sorry, there was some new information in the application—but hopefully you've had time to review it. This is the third meeting to review. Of course, with our park naming policy, it is advised that the Commission make a recommendation. That recommendation typically would include either approving and recommending approval for the City Council to consider, denial, or you could table and ask for additional information. [00:10] **Commissioner:** I would make a motion to approve. [00:10] **Commissioner:** Second. But here's the question: is it "Olson Memorial Trail" or "The Olsen Memorial Trail"? [Laughter] We made the motions to put it before the board. What does it really matter? Is that what we need to... [00:10] **Zac Dockter:** The application says "The Olsen Memorial Trail." [00:10] **Commissioner:** Okay. Yeah, I would agree with that. Is that good with the family? [00:10] **Chair:** Any additional discussion? Those in favor, aye. [00:10] **Commissioners:** Aye. [00:10] **Chair:** Those opposed? Okay, motion carries to recommend "The Olsen Memorial Trail" as the naming request. Back to business. Congratulations, that was good. Next, we have the disc golf matching funds request. [00:11] **Zac Dockter:** Chair, members of the Commission, we have a letter from the disc golf group and volunteer group in Cottage Grove that's been working diligently to improve the Oakwood Park Disc Golf Course. Obviously, the results of their work speak for themselves. They're back this year looking for some additional funding to help specifically with concrete tee pads, but they've also listed out some other accomplishments that they're hoping to achieve. We do have one of the leads of the volunteer group, David, here if the Commission has questions for him. Otherwise, we are looking for a motion to authorize $2,500 towards the installation of those concrete tee pads at the Oakwood Park Disc Golf Course. [00:12] **Chair:** I have no questions. I just want to say great job. I've heard and seen lots of great comments and feedback on how great it's coming along and how much it's improved, so thank you. We appreciate that. [00:13] **David (Volunteer):** Um, we took a lot of time talking with over 200 people that live in the community; they play out there all the time. The last piece of this whole puzzle is just putting in four new tee pads. Then we have two different layouts 100% completed out there. Then we're fixing the Hole 16 tee pad just because when it was first laid, the trees weren't the same way—right? It was 20 years ago. So now the tee pad kind of presents itself as a trip hazard. It's just finding a way that we can just straighten that out and then put in those other tee pads, and everything else is taken care of. [00:14] **Commissioner:** I have one question—I’m over here. Does the volunteer group have a name to it? Like, what are we calling you guys? [00:14] **David (Volunteer):** Disc golf volunteer group. I mean, there's not really a name. I mean, there's a handful of people with different businesses, a handful of people that are just community members, a handful of people that work in the industry that all helped out. I mean, we're just a volunteer group of people. [00:15] **David (Volunteer):** The focus behind the project initially when we started thinking about it in 2021 was that Oakwood Park, for the land and the layout and everything it has, had the potential of being one of the best courses in the state. It just needed some TLC. So by going through, we were fortunate enough—I was fortunate to build a really good relationship with one of the major companies in the industry, one of the regional people that helped us get basically everything we need. We were able to get 27 new baskets and be able to do all these things kind of at an accelerated pace just from other connections we had. [00:16] **David (Volunteer):** We are fortunate, too, that we had, I think, five different landscaping companies or construction companies volunteer their time and expertise. That really helped us with understanding how to grade things and just letting them kind of do what they naturally do. The next thing we have to do this spring is just... we have all that mulch you guys dropped off, which is fantastic. It's really just laying down that extra layer of mulch because it's going to get a lot more traffic. Right now, it sounds like they're planning on doing about a tournament every other week there, so it's really kind of taken off. We just want to make sure that we preserve all the walkways and incentivize people to stay on the paths. We also built in those road systems just so that you guys as a city can get back there easily. If there's bigger tournaments, people can monitor that and police can get back there to keep the unfortunate glass breaking and different things that go on out there away. [00:17] **David (Volunteer):** But with that, the whole idea with the paths is that there's other people that want to use the park that aren't into disc golf. We just really wanted to protect people from walking down the fairways. There had been some really kind of tragic things that happened over the last year at different courses with people getting hit and knocked out. So we just really wanted to avoid that and incentivize people to walk the path and stay out of the line of fire so we can all use the space. [00:18] **Chair:** There are just so many things to like about this. The community involvement and you all coming to us with a plan is one of them. The fact that this park will draw people from outside of our community is another big reason to be in favor of this, in my opinion. So thank you. [00:18] **Commissioner:** Did the trash issue ever get resolved? Like the trash cans and stuff like that? [00:18] **David (Volunteer):** Great question. We finished things off kind of at the tail end of the season last year for the state championship. It's hard for me to say because it was a good 30 of us out there with big garbage... we just cleaned everything up before all those people traveled over the state to come out. The whole focus this year now is that throughout the rest of the year, if we have any money... we still have about $1,100 of the $19,000 we raised for the different sponsorships. We're going to use whatever money is left over to put the final touches on it, but really just keep buying things like landscaping equipment or mulch. [00:19] **David (Volunteer):** The hope with building the trail system and the road system is just to make it very convenient. Convenience is key; we don't want to make it more of a hassle than it has to be for anybody to get back there and clean it. But the big thing I know going into this year is that garbage will have to be weekly. You're expecting probably 700 people a week now, and so that's going to be a lot of traffic. Most people in the disc golf space are pretty good with not bringing glass out there and being stewards to the park. Unfortunately, there's a handful of people that just aren't that way. I think that's true with any small community. Hopefully, the trash will be there. We're going to see if we can maybe get some extra signs made for just picking up trash. It's amazing what happens when you have something that's nice—people want to preserve it. When something's not nice, people don't really care. I'm hoping this year is a really good working example of "we have this nice space, let's preserve it." [00:20] **Chair:** Motion to approve? [00:20] **Commissioner:** Second. [00:20] **Chair:** Any additional discussion? All in favor, aye. [00:20] **Commissioners:** Aye. [00:20] **Chair:** Opposed? Motion carries, granting the $2,500 fund request to the disc golf volunteer group. Thank you. Next, we have the commission meeting agenda. [00:21] **Zac Dockter:** Thank you, Chair, members of the Commission. Just wanted to get the new year starting in March. Our term runs March through the following February, so I wanted to get the meeting agenda in front of the Commissioners. Typically, we do two meetings on and then a month off. You're welcome to change that if you feel we need more meetings, but I don't want to do fewer meetings. We can always cancel meetings if there's not an agenda. Also, all the meetings are currently scheduled at City Hall. We do a bus tour in June, or we could meet at a park site or expand on that a little bit if we wanted to meet out at park sites more. Just giving you the schedule so you can influence that if you so choose. [00:22] **Commissioner:** I'd love to be outside if weather permits. It’d be kind of fun to meet at a different park or something. I think we used to do one in September. [00:22] **Commissioner:** When we meet at a park, would we have the opportunity to still do some sort of broadcast? I know one of our responsibilities is to have an open and accessible meeting. Could we potentially have video at a park? I know at one meeting this room was under construction, so we had like an audio recording. Could we accommodate the open meeting and still be out in the open? [00:23] **Zac Dockter:** Yeah, there are ways we can do that. Let me meet with Telecommunications and our City Clerk and City Administrator just to find out the best way to make sure it's still a public meeting and everything's documented. We can figure it out. Now, for consistency purposes, I don't think you want to move too often, but yeah. [00:23] **Commissioner:** Do we need to specify at this point whether we would be meeting at other sites or could we explore that option and add that detail later? [00:24] **Zac Dockter:** It's up to the Commission. If you want to pick a date so that it's on the calendar, we can always adjust it. I’m looking at you, Sam... I mean, we have the bus tour in June, so we probably wouldn't want to have May and August here. That would leave September maybe outside. November/December you're starting to get a little chilly. [00:25] **Commissioner:** The COVID meeting was full of mosquitoes if I remember right. We did that out at Mississippi... it was kind of fun, right? [00:25] **Zac Dockter:** I will mark down... well, can it be like month by month? [00:26] **Chair:** I think for now the motion can be to accept the meeting agenda with making September 11th a park site meeting, and we'll change it later if we need to. [00:26] **Commissioner:** Will that even be a meeting day since it's September 11th, because of the memorial and stuff that the city does? [00:26] **Zac Dockter:** We have had it on September 11th before. I don't know that we do a memorial here, do we? I know we do Memorial Day. [00:26] **Chair:** Let's tentatively add an off-site meeting for September 11. Motion? [00:26] **Commissioner:** Motion. [00:26] **Commissioner:** Second. [00:27] **Chair:** All in favor, aye. [00:27] **Commissioners:** Aye. [00:27] **Chair:** Opposed? Motion carries; we've approved the meeting agenda with the noted addition. Okay, next we have a presentation of information about the local option sales tax. [00:28] **Zac Dockter:** Thank you, Commissioners. It was a thick part of the packet, and that's why I didn't ask you to read every single word if you didn't have the time to. We've been talking about the local option sales tax for quite a while. The City Council adopted a resolution to apply with the state legislature to approve a local option sales tax. That's the process: the state has to approve it first, then we can go back to the taxpayers of Cottage Grove for a referendum. The three projects recommended for funding are Hamlet Park, Mississippi Dunes Park, and River Oaks Golf Course and Event Center. One of the key components the state requests is "regional significance," which is why we landed on those three. [00:29] **Zac Dockter:** There were probably seven or eight projects that we thought could have been considered, but we wanted to get down to the ones that had the most regional impact and what we could afford. Financial consultants recommend that you plan for a lot of contingency. There is $36 million in projects. That's not what those parks would cost today, but you have to plan for what they might cost 5, 10, or 20 years from now. You phase your projects so that you try to achieve what you can based on tax revenue. That’s why you'll see a tiered system in the memo. [00:30] **Zac Dockter:** We try to bite off the items that we think are most critical. There's also a study we're doing at the University of Minnesota that will tell us more about what we should expect for the local option sales tax. There's a lobbyist proposal in there as well to help get this through the legislature. Currently, Representative Shane Hudella is carrying the bill for the House side, and it sounds like Senator Seeberger is willing to carry for the Senate side. At the end of the day, it's up to the residents of whether they want this or not. Any questions? [00:31] **Commissioner:** Do we know if the city's done any polling on this? Like citizen-wise? [00:31] **Zac Dockter:** We have not. We did the public engagement process to find out what people wanted for major projects, which is how we ended up on these three. I don't know that we'd do a community survey at this point because it'll just be "here's the projects" and we'll let them vote. [00:32] **Commissioner:** If we did have LOST funding in place, would that impact our eligibility for other sources of funding, particularly grants? [00:32] **Zac Dockter:** No. There's a lot of information from other cities that have been successful and not successful. It's not uncommon. One of the things that we're finding is everything is so expensive right now. Trying to fund things just with property tax is difficult because parks are competing against all the other service needs. Maintenance is easier to manage, but capital projects—like Mississippi Dunes—require a $7 million investment just to build the park. 15 years ago, that was probably a couple million. This is just another revenue source the city is considering. [00:33] **Commissioner:** So with these three parks, is that set in stone? Is there a reason why Hamlet Park would be more at the top versus Dunes Park when Dunes Park is newer and needy? You have Hamlet getting $10 million in Tier 1 and Dunes getting $4 million. [00:34] **Zac Dockter:** All those Tier 1 improvements for all three parks are what we can afford today based on our projections. As the sites are available, we would try to tackle all those projects as soon as possible. Tier 2 would only come if we have additional tax revenue as the city grows. We would take a bond out and pay that bond back with the local option sales tax proceeds each year. [00:35] **Commissioner:** Are these things not going to happen at Dunes Park if we don't do the sales tax? [00:35] **Zac Dockter:** If the local option sales tax is not a revenue source, I don't have an answer for what the next step is. We have money scheduled in the Capital Improvements Plan through the Park Trust Fund, but it's nowhere near close enough to fund it. Relying on Park Trust Funds means we have to build a lot of commercial and residential, and we're just severely underfunded there right now. [00:36] **Commissioner:** What's the typical turnaround time from when the Council approves the initiative to a point where it's ready for referendum? [00:36] **Zac Dockter:** The Council adopted a resolution in December, and we applied to the state by the January 31st deadline. Assuming the legislature adopts these in the spring, we would get authorization to go towards a referendum in November of 2024. In between, we'd be putting more detail behind these plans and have a 90-day educational campaign so people know what they're voting on. [00:37] **Commissioner:** Chair, these tend to pass at big election years like 2024. I have two questions. What might we be able to do to help this at the legislature? And secondarily, what can we do as a commission to help us be successful with this referendum? [00:38] **Zac Dockter:** As we get closer to that public education component, the Commission will be critical because we need to be able to tell the story of why this is important. It's just like we did with the community center. You guys have your boots on the ground in the community and understand what people are looking for. That’ll be really critical. [00:39] **Chair:** Thanks for sharing all that. We can move on to the Wellness 50 Plus. [00:39] **Molly (Recreation Staff):** Hello, everyone. Happy Valentine's Day tomorrow. I just wanted to share that we as a city have officially put it on paper that we are calling ourselves a resource partner with the Wellness 50 Plus group here in town. It started with Vicki Snyder over at Basic Needs and is expanding to sites like Oakdale and Stillwater. It's going to be along the same lines as our other resource partners like the bike park or the dog park. We help promote them, and they help promote us. [00:40] **Molly:** Dan Schoen is with our Public Safety Department, and we have started to highlight events to get our community age 50 plus more outdoor park opportunities. They are looking for training on how to use the exercise equipment at Kingston, playing bocce ball, and potentially some disc golf. The Public Safety things are on there, too. You will start seeing us promote the Wellness 50 Plus here in Cottage Grove a little bit more in the upcoming months. Any questions? [00:41] **Commissioner:** Good stuff. [00:42] **Commissioner:** We have a growing senior population. But the physical needs of a 50-year-old compared to an 80-year-old can vary. I wonder if we're doing enough to accommodate those different stages and getting feedback on what they would like to see. [00:42] **Molly:** They manage it really well internally. For kayaking, for example, some older people did the double kayaks, and staff helped them launch. We've talked about moving snowshoes to a more accessible park—Oakwood is for overachievers, so maybe moving it to an easier park. They know their customer base and everything is through Eventbrite so they can watch it. [00:43] **Chair:** Next up, we have action updates, starting with the Glacial Valley Park building project. [00:43] **Zac Dockter:** Nothing much has changed since the last time. This is the "duck on the water" analogy where there's a lot going on underneath but nothing's moving outside. We're getting permits and contracts in order. We plan on starting around May 1st and opening by the end of October. There is an Art Request for Proposal out right now. Initial proposals are due March 15th. We would hope the Commission be a part of choosing a finalist. [00:44] **Zac Dockter:** River Oaks Irrigation Project: we're finalizing that contract. Pipe and valves have been ordered. The pump house is a modular unit we expect in the next month or so. Everything's on track there. At the golf course, we are interviewing for a new golf professional, events manager, and a grill manager/cook. [00:45] **Commissioner Olson:** Back to the irrigation project... I read that we're going to be running the entire season at 17 versus 18 holes. Are we planning on marketing around that, or are the golfers going to find out when they call in? [00:45] **Zac Dockter:** Great question. Up until July, it will be the standard 18-hole course. Once it starts, we anticipate one hole being closed, and that will move week by week. We can schedule work around major tournaments so we can play all 18 holes for those. We'll definitely notify golfers which hole is closed. We aren't planning on changing the rates, but we're trying to look at how we can provide that value back, maybe a voucher in the clubhouse. Changing golf rates is hard because it's hard to go back and then go forward. [00:46] **Zac Dockter:** For other park projects: at Hamlet Park, we'll be reconstructing the basketball and tennis courts. Pine Tree Valley Park, we're replacing the rink lighting with LEDs. The bike park is getting a picnic shelter. Wag Farms Dog Park is getting small dog enrichment and drainage correction. We have playground improvements at Peter Thompson, Ideal, Pine Tree Pond, and Highlands Park. Glacial Valley Park is 80% complete, but we need to pave the courts and seed the ball fields. This is a handy document to keep around. [00:47] **Chair:** Any donation acknowledgments? [00:47] **Zac Dockter:** None tonight. I supplied the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area Water Trail Plan. I'll be meeting with the National Park Service in April. I also have the "Discover Cottage Grove" report. [00:48] **Commissioner:** Molly, I really like the idea of doing the project highlight on page 75. [00:48] **Molly:** I'm glad you read it! I'm going to highlight something different each time. We did facility rentals this month. They opened as of February 1st. Usage spiked during COVID and continues to spike. We're doing daily rentals now instead of multiple rentals a day; it’s been a welcome change. [00:49] **Zac Dockter:** Have we seen good usage of green space permits? [00:49] **Molly:** Maybe a handful a year. Oakwood will be the big one to manage this year between 700 disc golfers a week and maybe a graduation party for 150 people. There are nine tournaments already booked there. [00:50] **Commissioner:** How's the feedback been about daily rentals? [00:50] **Molly:** We have not heard any complaints so far. Some people want to get in earlier than 10:00 a.m., so we're making that work. I'm not on social media, though. [00:51] **Chair:** Moving on to Commission comments. Commissioner Witt? [00:51] **Eric Witt (Commissioner):** I want to thank the City for the plaque and the acknowledgment. I want to thank the other Commissioners. I've really enjoyed the seven years. I learned a lot and met a lot of great people. [00:51] **Commissioner:** I had brought forth some comments about our ice rinks and warming houses. Can we get an update? [00:52] **Jim Foreman (Parks Superintendent):** Hi, Commissioners. Yeah, the rinks this year were definitely a challenge. On a typical year, we start right after Thanksgiving. This year, we had the tanker out for two weeks, but we got warm, then we had snow, then a brief cold spell. Basically, everything we started with, we lost. We elected this year not to do Peter Thompson or Armstrong rinks purely due to staffing—we’re short one guy. We put somebody at each of the other rinks every day to flood. We have three rinks left as of today. Pine Tree Valley might make it until Friday because of the shade. [00:53] **Zac Dockter:** The same crew that's out plowing the roads is the same crew that has to stay late to plow the ice rinks and come in early to put ice down. They were worn out. [00:54] **Chair:** Do we have any Council comments this evening? [00:54] **Councilmember:** I don't have much of a voice, so I'll keep this brief. I'd like to commend Eric for his service. As Susie and I were sitting through interviews for new commission members, we were commenting on how we always try and encourage our community members to get involved. Eric has been a shining example. I hope Eric gets to use our parks and take with him a sense of pride in knowing he helped create those happy moments for other families. [00:55] **Chair:** With our agenda completed, we can adjourn to our workshop on commissioner onboarding. Motion? [00:55] **Commissioner:** Motion. [00:55] **Commissioner:** Second. [00:55] **Chair:** We are adjourning to our workshop.