Based on the context provided and the dialogue within the transcript, here is the formatted version with speaker names assigned. **Key Participants:** * **Mike:** Park Board Chair * **Eric Johnson:** Community Development Director * **Natalie Peterson:** City Councilor / Park Board Member * **Jim Sonneson:** Park Board Member * **Gene Shaw:** Park Board Member * **Jesse:** Park Board Member * **Kelly:** Park Board Member * **Dwight:** Park Board Member * **Jenna Wermuth:** Park Board Member * **Billy Tafes:** Public Visitor *** [0:00] **Mike:** get going here sounds good [0:09] **Eric Johnson:** just started all set yes sir okay so the city of hermantown park board is coming to order and this is march 16th and we'll do a roll call first gene gene shaw not here he's there uh he is here um let's ask everyone to unmute here as well are you are you muted gene [0:38] **Gene Shaw:** i'm not now okay [0:41] **Mike:** good job jim [0:43] **Jim Sonneson:** here [0:44] **Mike:** natalie peterson [0:46] **Natalie Peterson:** here thank you [0:48] **Mike:** natalie kelly [0:53] **Kelly:** here [0:57] **Mike:** dwight [0:59] **Dwight:** heir [1:00] **Mike:** jenna wermuth [1:03] **Jenna Wermuth:** here [1:05] **Mike:** and jesse's toki [1:08] **Jesse:** here [1:10] **Mike:** well that's the biggest crowd we've had at one time this year i think [1:14] **Eric Johnson:** yeah it's all president accounted for it's nice [1:18] **Mike:** yeah pretty good okay we need to start off with uh approval of minutes so need to hear a motion to approve the minutes for [1:33] **Jim Sonneson:** i have a i think there was an omission last uh meeting and here here's the omission i believe this is jim sonison i asked the question about the city increasing the amount of money that they put into the park dedication fund by a hundred thousand dollars eric agreed what was said he would be looking into when it started that was not in the minutes okay [1:55] **Eric Johnson:** okay we apologize for that [2:02] **Mike:** yeah well um any other corrections okay so we'll save approving well we can approve the minutes with that change i will so move if i can get a second [2:15] **Gene Shaw:** second [2:17] **Mike:** gene okay then everybody in favor [2:20] **Group:** hi hi hi [2:23] **Mike:** anybody opposed then the minutes are approved any public discussion i believe we just have one visitor uh with us this evening [2:50] **Eric Johnson:** uh billy tafes is on i don't know if he wanted to uh add anything or if he's just here for uh to listen in the meeting this evening [3:01] **Billy Tafes:** i'm just here to listen [3:04] **Eric Johnson:** okay well welcome bill thanks in that case then we'll go into continuing business and first to be updated on community recreation initiative yes thank you um unfortunately we do not have any members of ics with us this evening i'm going to uh attempt to share this with everybody uh can you see this on the screen right now perfect yes great and i apologize i um my powerpoint's not quite working well so you're going to see the whole screen here but this was presented to the city council last evening and this is also up on the city's website as well these are the survey results for that recreation initiative that had been out we had really good results with that it was an 11 question survey we had 1056 respondents of which 887 identified as hermantown residents so a little under 200 people that were outside of the city limits but obviously still involved with this so as i said you know that's really great uh almost 10 percent of the the city population so that's that's very good as part of that uh we're looking at some different items we broke up the questions into uh specific items right here is one of the questions that was support of the trail system within the city of hermantown and as you can see there on the screen between strongly agree and agree it was a little over 70 percent is about 71 percent of the people had had strong agreement with the ability to enhance and support our trail system uh essentially about 14 that disagreed with that so a pretty strong result that uh there's you know good favorability for our trail system [5:14] **Eric Johnson:** uh secondly fichner park a little bit less there but uh 65 plus or minus with the agree uh strongly agree supporting the enhancements over there at fichner with about 17 or 18 uh disagreeing associated with that then also was the additional sheet of ice associated with the hermantown arena we had about 53 percent in that agree strongly agree and then uh we had approximately about 35 percent in that uh strongly disagree or disagree category associated with it uh next we got into the um the favorability of people's response of using sales tax uh for this work there and uh as you can see about um 625 people responded in favor of use of a fail sales tax for trails but 592 for uh parks and 495 for the arena so you know pretty close across the board there of that support for the sales tax associated with those three particular projects the next one we get into some private contributions uh associated with it this actually flips a little bit more trails there's about 22 percent people believe that uh they actually would potentially donate to a trail system almost 18 percent for parks and much higher on the arena up to about 26 people had indicated that they'd be willing to donate uh to a um privately donate to an arena project uh the other slides um these actually break it down for just the um hermantown residents and particularly uh those essentially mirror really those um results that i just gave me a couple moments ago uh just with i said about 170 people less of that overall um the next step is we're going to continue to work with ics we have sent this information out to that consultant and they're going to be passing that on to each one of the stakeholders associated with this so uh some of you on the park board have been involved in these different committees so you'll be seeing this information come to your email probably in the next few days or so except this is a continuing process uh this is actually having discussion at the state right now at this point um natalie peterson if you maybe had anything to add at least from a council standpoint or um from the legislative standpoint welcome those comments here as well but other than that if there's any questions that i can uh help with from the park board standpoint i'd be happy to [8:21] **Natalie Peterson:** oh eric i apologize i was on mute sure i thought that i'd taken it off um but basically we had a couple clarifying questions after the hearing which had been answered um i think overall everything went well um we will be sending out a thank you to the committee for allowing us the time for the hearing um and the survey results will be sent to all the associated groups if you haven't received them already along with any individuals that completed this survey um and did list their email it was optional you didn't have to do that but we will send the results out there um probably share them on social as well and then they will be located um as well on the website so basically at this point the information will be taken in um with i like kind of a conversation which we haven't even had yet we just got these last night but on you know what is our marketing strategy what is the survey telling us you know what you know what do we need to focus on um how do we continue the conversations at this point um for kind of setting up a strategic plan um there is talk that there's possibly going to be a small bonding bill this year but it's sounding like those are very particular projects but this does not mean that we aren't looking at any other financing alternatives not property tax but um bonding or other alternatives um but this was a good point to gather some information let the community have some involvement and determine next steps that's pretty much what i have eric [9:54] **Eric Johnson:** oh perfect thank you very much for sharing appreciate that uh any questions from the park board members uh [10:16] **Mike:** maybe i'm sorry none we have no questions yeah no it's pretty quiet wasn't it this is mike i'd have questions but i found it interesting and uh part of it was oh [10:41] **Eric Johnson:** mike we lost you [10:44] **Mike:** am i am i still gone or am i there [10:47] **Eric Johnson:** you're here again thank you [10:49] **Mike:** okay um what i was saying is that what kind of struck me one was that uh the really strong support for uh the the improvement of the trail system and then a larger split on support for the hockey extra ice and that kind of surprised me i thought it was going to be the strongest so just sharing at least a surprise for me in terms of the results on the survey [11:15] **Natalie Peterson:** well i think mike if you look at it the trail perspective is really there um it's a larger group that has of interest in the trail right than a more um set group that is focused on either the fickner or the ice arena right for users where the trails are really there for everybody of all ages so i think that was part of it [11:41] **Mike:** yeah i'm sure it just uh for me i was a little bit of a surprise i wasn't sure that's the way i would see results so it was interesting [11:51] **Natalie Peterson:** i will say mike for me it came out about the way i thought that it would so for whatever that's worth [11:58] **Mike:** you smartered me [12:00] **Natalie Peterson:** no no i've just been having lots of conversations around it i think so it you know and just understanding like i said that you know when with the trails it's just a little more vast so it wasn't it wasn't a surprise so i think um i think it was kind of as we expected [12:18] **Mike:** okay good i was glad to see the support for trails improvement [12:22] **Eric Johnson:** and i think it helps as well that you know we've got a couple trail projects almost under our belt here between what we completed at steubner and the um the work along the sanitary sewer line that's going to start up again here pretty soon and then um once we finish with this i'll give you a little bit of an update on that keene creek trail segment here as well where that is in the process but i think that you know people see these things being built so it's kind of sticks in their the forefront of their mind a little bit more and um i think it's easy to get support when you we see something tangible and something happening right away that way [13:06] **Gene Shaw:** eric yes sir yeah i have had some conversations with a few commercial companies and there's some of them are getting a little concerned about how higher tax sales taxes are getting in the in the area um like if you were looking at a mid-range silverado pickup truck with the addition of the five percent that would bring it up the sales tax on it would be up to around twenty three thousand dollars or twenty three hundred dollars i'm sorry so there's a few of them out there that aren't quite as happy as we are [13:41] **Eric Johnson:** sure and that's um and i said that this will be uh interesting as it moves through the process here i mean obviously the first step is to be the state legislature giving the city the ability to put this on the ballot and then um then that next step obviously in 2022 would be the vote by our citizens if that's something they want to go forward with but um there'll be a lot of work to do in between those two time periods so um a chance to really uh you know help get the word out there and explain and process and so people can understand it [14:18] **Mike:** i've lost track of the timing but um when do we think we'll hear a result on whether the state supports the uh raising of the sales tax [14:30] **Eric Johnson:** well i'll start right now and then natalie please jump in uh is needed as well but uh it's being discussed at least in this session so uh this would be something that hopefully would be decided by the end of this legislative session that we'd be able to have that go ahead for it there's always a chance that this might get pushed down the road for another year just the rationale being that we as citizens can't even vote on this until 2022 so um you know if it if it doesn't get through the legislative this year we still have another shot next year but it still it obviously compresses the timeline a bit more for um for working with the groups [15:10] **Natalie Peterson:** yeah no that's that that is the timeline and just so that you know we are not the only community that is presenting for this type of an approach for a possibility i mean just because they approve it that doesn't mean that it goes forward right because the voters get to say in that right um and no we aren't at a final of this is what we're going to be what those dollar amounts are that it's all going to be sales tax dollars we have not determined all that that was part of the survey the reason for the survey but there are a lot of communities like us that have um applied or put forth a request for this type of sales tax for recreational projects and it really has come down to the fact that it's it's a better alternative obviously than our property tax increase to get these kind of projects accomplished in communities and keep your community vibrant and growing and and adding these additions that are needed right um so because there are so many communities what we had said is that we think overall they're going to do either a sweeping yes or no of these tax requests and we will be a part of that um along with the other communities that are looking at these recreational initiatives um so it might be something that if if they decide that this is not the time that they want to be doing this that they're going to push all of these requests to next year then that's like eric said that's what we'll be facing for a timeline and you know you just don't know what the political climate right now how that's going to end up [16:53] **Mike:** okay thanks a lot natalie [16:56] **Jesse:** i guess i just want to i just want to say something to go off kind of both their points um i guess my question is when i hear somebody when i hear uh what gene was saying about these businesses i guess i would be open to hear from them then what are our other options that they see fit to keep our community growing with everybody else because obviously people move into this community be for the the schools for the parks for the you know whatever you call it people are moving into herman if we say no we're not going to raise anything we're not going to put money into any of this again we're going to lose those people that came here for that reason so i guess i would be interested when people voice their concerns to say from a business standpoint hey i don't like this tax well what alternative do they see fit from a business standpoint that would be suited to go ahead with i guess would be a question i would be interested um in asking them people and seeing what they have as an alternative [18:06] **Natalie Peterson:** yeah and i mean jesse you're hitting the nail on the head here i mean so just so that you know we have been working with the hermantown chamber and keeping them updated and presenting to the hermetone chamber who are a large part of our business organizations that doesn't mean it's all of them or that all of them are paying attention but we have been keeping them updated and actually they've been very supportive of the projects and understanding you know what a vibrant community means to them and i will say uh when we did the school referendum which i was heavily involved with um i mean you look at what that did to our community from a positive growth standpoint not only from a commercial standpoint but residential which is what we need to be looking at this in a big picture because if you don't add those additions to your community and increase your pop your your base of your property tax right you're spreading that property tax cost out right too many um i mean why do you think that we've got all these residential developments happening it's because people want to be a part of this community because it is vibrant but these there's certain things that we need to be updating to improve to continue to attract young families and you know of all type families to our community right and in the end that's that's important is keeping us vibrant and continuing to build in our attack space in the right way and we will be going out through this process like we did with hawk pride and the school referendum a big piece of this will be that we will be individually meeting with those businesses as a stakeholder as part of this process so that's already started at that at the chamber level and some individual businesses but that will continue to expand because at some point that's just the reality of what is needed to keep a community growing and vibrant is you know the investment back into your community so um i don't know that's i you could ask you could ask one of the other sydney counselors and they might say something different that's my input in my opinion [20:21] **Gene Shaw:** if you'll excuse me i gotta go my granddaughter's yeah her my granddaughter's last hockey game is in cloque this afternoon [20:30] **Mike:** oh you don't remember you don't want to miss that gene all right bye [20:34] **Jesse:** here's my here's my here's my thing to that gene uh just with you leaving if we had another sheet of ice at hermantown we probably wouldn't have to travel with cloque so that's my little prop there [20:47] **Natalie Peterson:** well played jesse [20:50] **Jesse:** thank you anyway jessie does that answer your question or give you a little bit of um you know and [21:10] **Natalie Peterson:** here's the rea here's the reality we're we know i mean it's like with the school referendum with anything that we're doing in this you're going to have supporters and you're going to have non-supporters i mean that's just how it goes but the big thing is is that we make all of our community a part of the process and have a voice which they clearly will have when it comes to a vote um so i mean we just have to we have to set up a good strategy and a good plan and try to communicate and show the demand and the other thing is is you know we do balance of making sure that our sales tax is competitive right with other communities and that is part of this but the reality of it is communities all over are increasing their sales tax and needing to to support projects because that's where the money has to come from right that's where there's money to do these types of things unless you're going to property tax which i do not like because then everybody pays for part of this if you're buying even people who don't live in hermantown right [22:20] **Jesse:** so no i appreciate the insight there natalie and i i like when you said that uh this is gonna be a process that everybody's gonna go sit down with these businesses and uh because i know a lot you know they're just as important as everybody in this community you know because they bring people into this too but i you know that's where my thing like i just said i think it's going to be important to hear their voice because if you don't like something then help us try to make get a better option and maybe they have something maybe they don't but i appreciate it [22:42] **Natalie Peterson:** yep 100 thanks for the thoughts jesse [22:46] **Mike:** anybody else [22:50] **Jim Sonneson:** yeah jim sonnenson i agree with sales tax because it spreads out the money to people coming into the community passing through the community so that's that's one good thing [23:03] **Mike:** so with that should we move on to update on morris thomas road [23:07] **Eric Johnson:** that sounds great i'm going to uh please share my screen here again uh can everyone see the plan set here just see a message from me right now on there says from the email no plans no plans yet okay um dress one more time careful with your screen share eric that's what i think about if i'm sharing my screens i know try one more time uh is he still seeing my uh email or are you seeing uh okay well we'll give that up then well in your packet at least um it did uh we did have uh some four plan sheets associated with the trail uh this obviously starts down at the parking lot and progresses up northwards towards uh morris thomas road uh we did include a a concrete pad area near the parking lot there that's envisioned that that will be one or two picnic tables uh potentially a bike rack and a garbage can just similar to what we did over at steubner park uh we have approximately about going to say 12 000 square feet of wetland impacts associated with this trail we do have uh wetland credits lined up and that's going to go in front of the city council for approval of those purchases of those wetland credits we already have a wetland fund that uh those those credits can be purchased out of so there's no park dedication dollars associated with those wetland impacts for the most part this trail is all at five percent or less there's one small section that we're approaching about seven percent but it's extremely short run so uh northland engineers has done a really good job at uh trying to keep this you know fully accessible throughout the length of that as we get up towards um morris thomas we are getting close to uh the existing creek and kind of a basin of water right there so in that case that's plan sheet number 11 in the set that you have there's going to be some wrap associated on the edge of the trail as well as a four foot tall uh vinyl clad chain link fence that we're going to install along there from a safety standpoint so that'll um protect that whole edge of that trail we're in that close proximity of that of the creek area over there this project uh the bids are due on march 25th assuming good favorable bids with that this would then go to uh the city council for uh their approval uh what i can still do in the meantime is um in between that at least get those numbers out to the park board members because this trail is actually uh is slated to be paid for by the existing grant dollars that we have as well as park dedication money associated with it as well so i'll let you know what that uh that number is ahead of time the um and then assuming once again um council approval uh the thought or hope is that the contractor would be able to start right away get in with the tree clearing start doing the work uh we're under a tight time flame right now looking for a june 30th completion date on it we are engaging mary murphy at the state level looking into a potential extension of that date to get to the end of the year but right now we're still operating under a june 30th condition for uh completion of this segment of trail as well as the trail to the north within that section 24 [27:46] **Mike:** so uh eric just mike um when you say completion that would include uh the surfacing [27:54] **Eric Johnson:** yes that's correct it'd be um correct no as i said bituminous uh signage uh any sort of uh crossings on roadways etc [28:06] **Mike:** okay and then the portion to the north that is being worked on is that's not coming all the way down to morris thomas yet is it [28:16] **Eric Johnson:** no we stole that gap we have that one mile gap between town road and morris thomas uh we are yep we are engaging i'm sorry that's all right it's right that's what happens on these things yeah so anyhow that that means this will sort of be by itself for a while with nobody coming in on it it's just going to be waiting for a connection exactly and we're going to keep on working for grant opportunities um we are discussing uh there's a developer just to the north of this that has property that we're working with them and an easement that's going to continue to have discussions whether it's strictly just an easement whether there's some potential trail construction with their project that's kind of unknown right now but we're looking at any means potent possible to help construct these and help pay for these but the goal is to uh to get that mile gap completed sooner than later so at least we have that continuous trail going all the way from uh the intersection at stepner and maple grove all the way down to king creek park [29:17] **Mike:** and then is that the only obstruction that development is everything else okay [29:22] **Eric Johnson:** now uh we will still need to get an e we have one or two choices either to get an easement from king creek town homes on the back side otherwise the plan is uh we have an existing sanitary sewer that runs through there that we could uh head straight west on that sewer where it intersects orchestra and then uh go up go north and okay up to hermantown road again so would have you know some bends in the trail system at that point i mean that's a worst case scenario but we could complete that um that connection by way of that as well but the goal is to get an easement as well from the king creek town homes [30:05] **Mike:** okay that's good [30:07] **Eric Johnson:** and then i did have a conversation with uh a city of proctor representative yesterday uh a person who's been working quite a bit on their trails uh the thought is to um try to get together in the next one to two months here and then just kind of go over not only germantown's plans for the trail system but also what proctor's been working on and uh start renewing that relationship between the two cities as uh these trails try to connect with each other [30:41] **Mike:** do you have a sense that uh proctor has been moving forward [30:46] **Eric Johnson:** uh not so much to the uh north and east towards us they've been having a bit more of a straight uh east-west trail connection that's really been a lot of their energies right now in between their existing school and they're in the athletic complex working over towards i think playing field they do have as part of their master plan it does match up with uh what we have been following and that's the 2014 trails master plan for this both hermantown and proctor were involved in thanks siri [31:26] **Mike:** yep any questions from anybody in the group well with that then we move on to new business they don't see any listed [31:36] **Eric Johnson:** well actually i do have a couple updates uh speaking to paul since yesterday and he said that the um the batting cages are being shipped this week so we expect to have those here shortly and then a weather dependent he's going to be getting those installed out at um i believe both rows and over at fichner likewise he has been discussing with the um the supplier the basically that rubber crumb surfacing that's put in the astro turf as well so he's looking to um to purchase he believes this would be about two thousand dollars and he has a budget as part of his um his work already that he can absorb that but that's the thought that uh try to get those batting cages up late april into may oh it's obviously weather dependent sure and then also he and i've been talking about the uh care of the trail as well particularly in the winter time the ultimate goal is is for the city to purchase um some sort of a broom apparatus that we can put onto one of our existing vehicles we're still looking into that but to some quick numbers that he's coming up with or from like twelve to fifteen thousand dollars for that sort of um uh sort of a system that way to care for it so you know then he and i were discussing as well as what's the what's the level of care they're gonna try to eventually maintain on this are we trying to get down to bare pavement are we just trying to keep it in a to keep the snow off it and that's obviously going to depend on the equipment that we have right and uh that was it as far as the additional new business that i had [33:31] **Mike:** okay then any communications [33:34] **Eric Johnson:** uh no none [33:36] **Mike:** okay with that then uh move on to any reports from board members now just uh gene's gone jim [33:48] **Jim Sonneson:** yes when i brought up that uh city money that's going to come into the park dedication at 100 000 did you have time or eric to find out what year that starts [34:03] **Eric Johnson:** yes i spoke with our finance director and he said that's actually 2022 so it's gonna be starting next season [34:10] **Jim Sonneson:** okay thank you that's the only thing i have [34:15] **Mike:** hey natalie [34:17] **Natalie Peterson:** um sorry mike i just was actually moving into my car um nothing for me at this time i think uh we pretty much covered everything but okay sounds good [34:39] **Mike:** kelly [34:40] **Kelly:** no i'm good [34:41] **Mike:** okay dwight say yeah dwight's still there [34:45] **Dwight:** he's still here yep [34:47] **Mike:** we'll move on to jenna [34:50] **Jenna Wermuth:** nope nothing from me [34:53] **Mike:** and jesse [34:55] **Jesse:** nothing here [34:57] **Mike:** and nothing for me so with that um one i appreciate the updates eric and natalie those are really good then we can take a motion to adjourn if somebody so moves [35:14] **Jim Sonneson:** i have a question first are we thinking about getting back in person yet anytime soon [35:21] **Eric Johnson:** you kind of beat me with a puncher i'm glad you're glad you said that uh that was one other thing that paul and i were talking about is trying to have um our field walkthroughs like we've done in the past i think that would be at least a good way to start uh let's see how um next uh couple weeks treat us but maybe tentatively configure um in april meeting to be out in the field uh looking at our parks at that time i think that would be at least a good start to get back together and we're in outdoors which is nice [35:41] **Mike:** yeah how is everyone doing at your end as far as covid shots [35:46] **Jim Sonneson:** jim saw i've had both of mine [35:49] **Mike:** yeah this is mike yeah i've had both [35:52] **Eric Johnson:** and it's both and it's really just a comfort level of the board uh trying to be able to meet uh for the most part have been trying to mirror city council on um on our different boards that way you know and when we meet uh council has been doing uh some split agenda so far that we've had some people uh here in person and some people remotely still so um i said i think a lot of it just depends on the comfort level of the group that way i mean city hall is open we've been open uh we do have the ability to host in-person meetings and still socially distance so um maybe we can tentatively figure that april that will be out in the field and then potentially may then that we'd be back in person at that point [36:47] **Jim Sonneson:** when when you have the social dissidence meetings are they in a bigger room then [36:52] **Eric Johnson:** yeah we either do it in the council chambers or we even have the ability to go into the training center at the other end of the building which is an extremely large room that way [37:04] **Jim Sonneson:** okay yep sounds like a good goal [37:08] **Mike:** in you okay back to um emotion for adjournment [37:15] **Jim Sonneson:** i'll make a motion to adjourn [37:18] **Mike:** and do i hear a second [37:28] **Natalie Peterson:** [Laughter] thanks eric and natalie for updating us appreciate it [37:34] **Eric Johnson:** yeah thank you all for joining us and uh i'll send out um like i said it's more information but um it says tentatively figure uh maybe one plus or minus early afternoon in april to meet out in in person in the fields associate assuming we still have some good weather here [37:54] **Mike:** yep maybe mud but does it not be good we'll see you then great thank you everybody [38:00] **Group:** thanks everyone thank you