This transcript is from an Oakdale Parks and Recreation Commission meeting. Based on the context provided and the dialogue within the text, I have identified the speakers and formatted the transcript as requested. [00:00:00] **Glenn Jacklet (Vice Chair):** Well, good evening everyone. We are the regular meeting here of the Parks and Recreation Commission. I am Glenn Jacklet, the Vice Chair. I apologize in advance—I've never had to have the meeting run with the Chairman not being here, so I am going to do the best I can. Okay, so we'll have call to order. And are you going to do the roll or shall I do it? [00:00:20] **Hannah Dunn (Staff):** I'll call roll. Commissioner Berth? (Here). Commissioner Cunningham? (Here). Commissioner Jacklet? (Here). Commissioner Gianini? (Here). Commissioner Meyer? (Absent). Commissioner Moore? (Here). Commissioner Shore? (Here). [00:00:40] **Glenn Jacklet:** Okay, and with that, we will stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. *(Pledge of Allegiance)* [00:01:00] **Glenn Jacklet:** Okay, has everyone had a chance then to look over the agenda today? Anyone want to move to approve the agenda? [00:01:10] **Commissioner Cunningham:** I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. [00:01:12] **Commissioner Gianini:** I'll second. [00:01:14] **Glenn Jacklet:** All in favor? (Aye). Opposed? (None). Carried. Okay, approval of minutes of the May 21st meeting. Has everyone had a chance to look that over? (Yes). Do I hear a motion to approve the minutes? [00:01:25] **Commissioner Shore:** Motion it. [00:01:27] **Commissioner Moore:** I'll second it. [00:01:29] **Glenn Jacklet:** All in favor? (Aye). Opposed? (None). Motion carries. Okay, so the first thing we are going to do this evening is our open forum process. I see we have visitors here for the first time in quite a while. You are more than welcome at this time to come before the podium. Please state your name and address and whatever is on your mind that you want to discuss. We want to be able to keep this to about three minutes. We want to get your opinion on what it is that you want us, the Commission and the Council, to be aware of so we have something we can talk about and address for you. Whoever wants to come first? [00:02:15] **Sarah Scott (Resident):** Hello, my name is Sarah Scott and I live in Oakdale. Do you need my street address? Okay... 7554 4th Street North in Oakdale. I just wanted to ask a question for the committee. I am a part of the Oakdale Pickleball Club, which you probably are aware because I've talked to you guys before. I was just wondering if there's any updates on the patching of the courts and if that's going to be happening anytime soon? The surface keeps getting worse with rain; it's peeling up and cracking. I also wanted to make sure you guys were aware that the existing tennis court has a white strap that goes over the net which has come off. It makes it really hard to use it for our extra pickleball court or for people to play tennis. There's a hook on that white strap that is gone, so you can't use the strap on the tennis net. That was my question. [00:03:10] **Glenn Jacklet:** Okay, thank you. Anyone else? Jeff, is there any chance you can speak to that at all? [00:03:15] **Jeff Koesling (Parks Superintendent):** It's an issue of all the rain we've had. I’ve got to have a week of dry weather. I can catch up on the 30 parks we have to mow and trim every week. We have not had enough dry weather to do anything other than keep up with what we're trying to keep up with. I've got the Athletic Association where I'm canceling games probably three nights a week. Even on nights like tonight, I’ve got three or four inches of water in our outfield standing out there. It's just been an unbelievable year with the rain. Priority-wise, there’s just other things in front of it and I only have five full-time staff. We'll get to it, we just have not had a chance. I've been down there several times; I don't think it is to the point where you cannot play on it, I don't think it's a danger. We had the Council down there this spring and they all took a tour. It'll get addressed as quick as we can, we just need dry weather. [00:04:15] **Sarah Scott:** Okay, thank you. [00:04:17] **Glenn Jacklet:** Anything else at the open forum? Okay, we'll move on then to old business. First is the 2024 work plan: Commission Education. I'm not sure—is there going to be a presentation? [00:04:30] **Hannah Dunn:** No presentation, I can speak to that. Back at our May meeting, we had a couple of people step up. I believe we had Jan down to visit, and Kari and Steve. Steve is not here. Does anyone have a report to make? Jan, I think you were doing a visit? [00:04:45] **Commissioner Shore:** I did. It was part of the Fire Department when they had the picnic. I thought overall that was just a great event. The Fire Department, through the Oakdale Chamber of Commerce, put on the free picnic lunch and they were cooking hot dogs. It’s just fun. I took my grandchildren there and they loved it. They had all kinds of little games. Then we went over to Summerfest after that, which was the same day. It was good, we really enjoyed it. [00:05:20] **Commissioner Moore:** I was supposed to go to the popup splash pad on Saturday; instead, I hosted 19 children in a pool for my son's birthday party. Tomorrow I'm going to the Farmers Market. I'm super excited to see the new vendors, even if it means doing that whole big drive loop around. [00:05:40] **Glenn Jacklet:** Exactly. Would anybody like to step up and take August? [00:05:45] **Commissioner Cunningham:** I can do August. Farmers Market? Or is something else needed? [00:05:50] **Hannah Dunn:** It's for your own exposure to programs and parks that you haven't seen yet. [00:05:55] **Commissioner Cunningham:** Yeah, I'll take Farmers Market. [00:06:00] **Glenn Jacklet:** Is there any other old business we need to discuss? Okay, with that we'll move on to new business: the Park System Plan update. Hannah, are you going to be speaking to this? [00:06:15] **Hannah Dunn:** I'll be kicking things off. For those that don't know me, my name is Hannah Dunn, I'm a Community Development Specialist at the city. This is Ken Grieshaber with SRF Consulting; they're the consultant working on the park system update project. Tonight we'd like to provide a brief update about where we're at and discuss immediate next steps. We'd also like an opportunity to chat with you about the park concept plans in your packet. We don't have enough time to walk through them one by one, but we'd like to discuss proposed improvements, specifically playgrounds, because we value your feedback. [00:07:00] **Hannah Dunn:** Last time we came to a meeting was April. Since then, we've conducted design charrettes with City staff, including Public Works, Parks, Community Development, Recreation, Police, Communications, and Facilities. SRF created preliminary designs for 27 of our parks. Tanner is still in development. These went live to the public for comment on Friday, June 28th, and will be open until August 31st. We tabled at Summerfest and talked to over 70 people. We also met with the Oakdale Athletic Association last week to talk about athletic amenities. [00:08:45] **Hannah Dunn:** I want to talk about the different park types. There's Community parks—Tanner, East Side, Walton—which meet the needs of the entire community. Neighborhood parks are smaller scale, serving residents within a 10-minute walk. The two other classifications are Natural Resource parks and Special Use parks (like the Bark Park). I'll pause to see if Commissioners have questions about the park classifications. [00:09:50] **Commissioner Moore:** I don't have a question, but I really appreciate it. There were a couple of parks in my personal notes where I had said "why?" and this really helps to explain that. Thank you. [00:10:15] **Hannah Dunn:** I’ll turn it over to Ken to start talking about the concept plans. [00:10:30] **Ken Grieshaber (SRF Consulting):** Good evening Commissioners. My name is Ken Grieshaber, I'm a Landscape Architect with SRF. The purpose of this plan is to create a 10-year vision. Jeff's done a great job maintaining the system, but needs have changed. We had brainstorm sessions with City staff to develop these preliminary concepts. We're looking at five main areas: Playgrounds (evolving for sensory play and different age groups), Athletic Fields (upgrading to full-size fields for soccer and baseball), Court facilities (Pickleball is huge and not going away), Accessibility (adding routes to get to facilities), and Natural Resources (pollinator gardens). We have about six weeks to gather public feedback. Any questions? [00:13:50] **Commissioner Moore:** I noticed it looks like we have just one water feature going in, and that's at Walton Park. Can you talk a little bit about the vision for that? [00:14:05] **Ken Grieshaber:** Splash pads are more cost-effective than pools. Walton seems like a great place because you need parking and a destination area. You can spend $300,000 or $3 million, so we need to see what the city can afford. [00:14:30] **Commissioner Shore:** We did go through talking about a splash pad in 2016. At that point, because you'd have to sanitize the water and the monitoring, it was not cost-effective. [00:14:45] **Ken Grieshaber:** There are recirculating systems which are more expensive to maintain, and "pass-through" systems that run into storm sewers. We would need to look into those details. [00:15:30] **Commissioner Shore:** And parking, clearly. [00:15:35] **Commissioner:** I see the note that Tanner Lake concept plans are forthcoming, but can you speak to what's going to happen with the old concession building down there? [00:15:45] **Ken Grieshaber:** We’ve looked at making it more of an open-air community meeting space with pull-doors. We have some ideas generated that we’ll share soon. [00:16:15] **Glenn Jacklet:** I wonder what efforts are being made to get this survey out broadly to the Oakdale public? [00:16:25] **Hannah Dunn:** We’ve posted on Facebook, in the Mayor's Monday Morning Minute, and had flyers at Summerfest. We met with OAA, and we have yard signs with QR codes going up in the parks. [00:17:10] **Commissioner Cunningham:** Glenn and I go to the Farmers Market every Wednesday. If it's possible, we should have materials there. [00:17:25] **Hannah Dunn:** That’s a great idea. I’ll give flyers to Nathan and I’ll be at future markets myself. [00:17:45] **Commissioner Moore:** What about the "Night to Unite" event? All the neighborhoods are registered. Is there a way we can spread this through that? [00:18:05] **Hannah Dunn:** Absolutely. We have staff going out to those gatherings. [00:18:15] **Commissioner Moore:** Is it okay if we share it on Facebook? [00:18:20] **Hannah Dunn:** Yes, please reshare. [00:18:30] **Jeff Koesling:** I've worked with Ken and Hannah for almost two years on this. Ken and his staff have been phenomenal. I’m also excited that we have a brand new park going in at Willowbrook Commons—the playground should be finished mid-next week. [00:19:15] **Sarah Scott:** And pickleball courts down the road! [00:19:20] **Ken Grieshaber:** Absolutely! Thank you very much. [00:19:40] **Glenn Jacklet:** Is there any other new business? If not, we'll move on to staff updates. [00:19:45] **Jeff Koesling:** Summerfest was great. Friday was a washout, but Saturday was phenomenal; the park was packed. Hats off to my crews for the cleanup. The fireworks were probably the best show I’ve seen in 24 years. Like I mentioned to the Pickleball Club, we’ve struggled with the rain—all we've done is mow. We’ve had almost a year’s worth of rain in three months. Regarding fields 1-4, the LED lighting project is scheduled for this fall. They’ll keep the existing poles but swap the fixtures. We’re looking at starting that in September. [00:21:50] **Julie Williams (Recreation Superintendent):** Recreation is halfway through the season. Summer camps wrap up the second week of August. Farmers Market is at peak season. We have "Snake Discovery" this Thursday at the amphitheater. Our concert series continues tomorrow with "Rear Form," a rock cover band. Our second popup splash pad had 250 kids show up at East Side. This Friday is "Movie in the Park"—we are showing *Barbie*. We also have a blood drive this Friday at the Discovery Center and a family jigsaw puzzle contest on August 11th. [00:24:45] **Jeff Koesling:** You probably used the rink more in that hour and a half than we did all winter! [00:24:55] **Glenn Jacklet:** Any Commissioner updates? [00:25:00] **Commissioner Moore:** Jeff, you really undersold the amount of work you guys did at Summerfest. The metal barricades were really nice and the workers stayed busier than I’ve ever seen. [00:25:15] **Jeff Koesling:** Thank you, I'll pass that along. [00:25:20] **Commissioner Shore:** I encourage people to look at the Oakdale update for the Wellness 50 Plus programs. We have Wednesday walks and tree tours with Mike Bender and Marge Seasur. [00:25:45] **Commissioner Gianini (Mark):** Jeff, thanks for your patience getting us fields. It’s been tough, but we’ll make it work. [00:26:00] **Commissioner Cunningham:** I’ve got nothing today, have a great night. [00:26:05] **Glenn Jacklet:** Councilman Morcomb, do you have an update for us? [00:26:10] **Andy Morcomb (Council Member):** You all covered the details. I bike through Willowbrook and it's exciting to see the playground going up. Summerfest was a huge success; it felt like before COVID. A lot of people in Oakdale love to dance! I encourage everyone to share the park survey. It’s our guidepost for the next 10 years. [00:27:15] **Glenn Jacklet:** I have one comment. Thank you for your help at Summerfest being one of the "celebrity" beer tenders. I believe you were the winner. [00:27:25] **Andy Morcomb:** I may have taken top prize! We raised a lot of money for scholarships, so we had fun. [00:27:45] **Glenn Jacklet:** Is there anything else? Anyone want to move for adjournment? [00:27:50] **Commissioner Moore:** Motion. [00:27:52] **Commissioner Cunningham:** I'll second it. [00:27:54] **Glenn Jacklet:** All in favor? (Aye). Meeting adjourned.