This transcript features the **Apple Valley Park and Recreation Advisory Committee** meeting. Based on the context provided and the dialogue within the recording, the speakers have been identified as follows: **Key Speakers:** * **Brent Schultz:** Committee Chair (Outgoing) * **Eric Carlson:** Parks and Recreation Director * **Mike Cordis:** Park Superintendent * **Steve Rather:** Park Maintenance Supervisor * **Bill:** City Staff (Events/Midwinter Fest) * **Brad Blackett:** Public Speaker/Resident * **Dave:** Committee Member (likely Dave Haveman based on city records, identified as "Dave" in transcript) *** [0:03] [Music] [0:58] **Brent Schultz:** Right, you could have said, "Kayla, off—this is my presentation." I just hate to see... I showed it to Kayla and she said, "You need help." Uh, call the meeting to order. This is the February 1st, 2024, meeting of the Apple Valley Park and Recreation Advisory Committee. Thank you all for being here tonight. First order of business, as usual, is to say the Pledge of Allegiance. I invite you all to stand and face the flag and recite together. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, [1:46] **Brent Schultz:** with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, everyone. Um, we have a relatively short agenda tonight. Has everybody had a chance to review it, and are there any changes by the committee or the staff? **Eric Carlson:** No changes from staff. **Brent Schultz:** If not, I'd like a motion to approve the agenda as published. **Committee Member:** Make a motion to approve the relatively short agenda as published. **Committee Member:** I'll second then. **Brent Schultz:** Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. **Committee Members:** Aye. **Brent Schultz:** Opposed? That motion is unanimous. And um, we have 10 minutes [2:36] **Brent Schultz:** allotted now in the agenda for the public to step forward and talk about anything that's on their mind that is not already on tonight's agenda. So, would anybody like to do that at this time? And seeing none, we will move on to approval of the minutes from our December meeting. I've had a chance to review them. Are there any corrections or comments from the committee? No? Good. If not, then I'd also like a motion to [3:21] **Brent Schultz:** accept those as published. **Committee Member:** I'll make a motion to accept the December 2023 minutes. **Committee Member:** I'll second that as published. **Brent Schultz:** A motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. **Committee Members:** Aye. **Brent Schultz:** Opposed? That motion is also carried. So let's move on really to the heart of tonight's agenda, and we're going to be talking about the city's new Sign Master Plan. I'm thinking that Mike is going to be discussing this with us. Mike is the Park Superintendent. [3:53] **Mike Cordis:** I will. Good evening, Chair, members of the committee. Thanks for having me this evening. I just want to do a quick review of what we've been working on through this referendum process and kind of go slide by slide on a couple of things that we've been working on and looking for a motion at the end of things. So, we've been working diligently to get a Master Sign Plan put together. Confluence has been working with us and, with the support of the Recreation or the Park and Recreation Committee, come up with some sign plans and everything. So I'll just kind of review that as we move forward. [4:38] **Mike Cordis:** Um, just a table of contents of what's in this document; we've all seen it before, just kind of a brief overview of that. Starting out, we were looking at letter font sizes, colors, symbols—everything that was kind of into the whole mix of the sign plan itself. Confluence presented all this information, and we started to work through the process from there. [5:05] **Mike Cordis:** Broke it down into some certain sign designs and sizes, different locations and panel colors, and everything like that. Landed on some colors as you can see, and then broke it down as far as the layouts from different style sizes of signs and what could go on them: front and back park rules, icons that go on them as well, and then a full whole sign family—what that might look like. You've got smaller ID signs, larger ones, directional signs, trail mileage, trail wayfinding, larger style signs, you know, monument signs and all of that. [5:54] **Mike Cordis:** And again, breaking them down into smaller groups. Obviously, park ID signs roughly for parks that are about 5 acres or less, and for the larger signs, something in about the 7-acre size itself. And then all the way up into some of the special use identification signs, kind of the higher-use parks so to speak, and where that fit into the plan of everything. And again, another breakdown of some trail directional signs and what they might look like—taller, shorter ones, mileage markers, and wayfinding signs itself. And then all the way up to the monumental signs with digital panels and where they might be located in our system. [6:42] **Mike Cordis:** With the staff, we did some preliminary plotting of some of these areas and what they might look like, and the slides to come, you'll see that on a mapping document. So, that's kind of where we've landed on some of this information with the work of Confluence and again, what that might look like as it lays out in a park setting, spread out throughout what that could look like going forward. And again, monument signs that are anywhere from lit up and what styles they might look like and how they're anchored moving forward. [7:26] **Mike Cordis:** And then current sign locations. So, we did in our parks department, with the help of our GIS staff, we went on and we mapped everything that we have in our systems: anywhere from the park identification sign, park rules, trailheads, directionals, wayfinding, and scenic style trails that are out there. Currently, this is what we have in our system, and then this is kind of staff looking at the requirements or what was based that we had for the information—replacing some of those signs proposed. I mean, this isn't anything that's written in rock, obviously; it's just something that we thought might fit into our system. [8:13] **Mike Cordis:** Now, this here map doesn't include any of the mile markers or wayfinding signs; they're basically park rules—I mean, park identification signs for the most part. So it runs anywhere from the small park signs, large ones, community special use monument signs, large ones, two-sided and lit monument signs as well. So those diamonds and colors correspond to where those locations are. [8:40] **Mike Cordis:** This is kind of the spreadsheet that correlates with that mapping, showing what we thought might be a good placement for those types of signs. If you take a Cobblestone Lake, for instance, there's four small park signs that would be installed there potentially, a large park sign, a community special park sign, and a monument sign as well. And that's just an extended list of all of that information and kind of a count on what that might be as far as totals that we would use in the park system. [9:21] **Mike Cordis:** And again, this isn't anything that's really written in rock; we just kind of placed that based upon the information of the sign stuff that Confluence put together. So with that, this is quite brief, I understand. I just wanted to present this to the committee to make a motion to accept the master plan that Confluence has put together to recommend for the City Council approval as well. [9:52] **Committee Member (Female):** Question for you, Mike. Could we consider putting a lit sign along near the fire station near Hayes? It’s higher traffic. [10:04] **Mike Cordis:** Yeah, that's one of the things we took into consideration when we started to plot some of these. It may be a smaller park as far as acreage goes, but if you're, you know, at 45 miles an hour, if you're driving past that, it might be a little more difficult to see. So we kind of tried to take that into consideration. Well, maybe this should be a larger park sign just for the reasoning behind the traffic speed and everything like that. Um, that's a good idea, too. I mean, we considered Apple Pond or Apple Grove there having something like that along 42—something similar to that. Also at Redwood, on Redwood South, maybe a larger monument sign that's lit up to kind of "Welcome to Apple Valley." I know there's been a lot of response to do something like that as they enter the city itself. So these are things to consider. I mean, and again, this is just kind of a proposed map that we're putting together how we see things, but definitely up for discussion. **Committee Member (Female):** I think there's a stoplight there as well. [11:00] **Mike Cordis:** Yes, there is. At Hayes, yes. Right, correct. Yep. **Brent Schultz:** Okay. All right, thanks. Okay, Mike, you know, I mean, I think we all really like the sign design—the colors and you know, we talked about this many times. We haven't talked so much about how we're going to hold these things up, or what the posts are going to look like, or what they're going to be made of or anything. Has that been decided? [11:34] **Mike Cordis:** Um, that hasn't completely been designed yet. So once this process goes through, we'll work on picking a vendor to construct them, so to speak. So that might be a little bit premature for me to answer how they're going to be anchored or how they're built. We'll put the schematics or the designs together, put them out to a sign vendor, and see what they may recommend. I've got ideas too, but we want to make sure that we're consistent across the board. We aren't just going to put treated 4x4s in the ground. **Brent Schultz:** That's not the plan? **Mike Cordis:** No. Uh, we talked multiple times about what that looks like. Maybe a composite material that looks similar to wood, has a grain texture to it—using something that's probably a little more long-lived than maybe just a 4x4 piece of lumber, so to speak. [12:20] **Brent Schultz:** Yeah, they have those sleeves, you know, that go over the 4x4 posts right, you know, that have a wood grain to them. **Mike Cordis:** Yeah, there are a lot of options that are out there. I will say that. I mean, something that I may never have been exposed to, but yes, I think that's one of those things we'll need to consider moving forward. **Brent Schultz:** And then you know, also—and I guess we could just talk about this for for a minute—the sign with the white swoosh on the top without some type of a header on it, I think it tends to kind of get lost in, especially like on a cloudy day. I think it might be... for example, some—one idea would be to have some type of a, you know, an element going across the top of the sign. Picture frame it, so to speak. **Mike Cordis:** Yeah, banner? **Brent Schultz:** Has there been any conversation about that, or...? [13:31] **Mike Cordis:** Um, no, not necessarily. I mean, I think as we started to develop some of these concepts and plans, you know, this is kind of what we landed on for the most part. Um, I think part of the problem here is a lot of that upper swoosh disappears on the blank sheet of paper. You know, there's really no contrast here on this sheet that shows that. I think in all reality, you get it out into the real world, it'll probably be pretty noticeable. **Brent Schultz:** Well, I don't know. I mean, you know, if you have a kind of a cloudy day and sure, or snow... I mean, so I guess my thought would be to... that I'd be very interested in seeing some concepts with the, as you call it, picture framing. [14:26] **Mike Cordis:** Sure, sure. Well, um, that might be something we can entertain moving forward. **Brent Schultz:** Or even an off-white might do it. **Mike Cordis:** Well, and again, I mean, I think part of this process as we went through it was to try and get the colors—pick something that works for everybody, so to speak. And this is kind of what we landed on through this whole process. But yeah, totally understand the question, for sure. **Brent Schultz:** Are you looking for a motion to approve the Confluence Master Plan? [14:57] **Committee Member (Male):** I have one more question, sorry, before that. So what I'm also hearing is that it's great that we have the plan, but there is also that flexibility to adjust it where you see fit as we... you know, if it's, we're going to maybe do two signs—small signs—and you've just got it for one, or there's enough flexibility in here to adjust as you need to as you're putting these up? [15:28] **Mike Cordis:** Yeah, there's a bunch of choices of signs itself; you can certainly utilize them in certain situations. And again, part of what we did as a staff was trying to place them in areas that would make the most sense, being exposed to the park system, right? Sure. **Committee Member (Male):** So with regards to like the directional signs, I know that you don't have those mapped out. There's going to be a lot more of them. Part of the referendum dollars is for kind of expansion of trails in the city, which I'm assuming is going to be partially these connecting trails where they aren't connected now. Depending on the timing of when a portion of trail that's connecting two separate areas is done, we could have a wayfinding sign up before that trail is completed. Is there ability—or will we have some sort of foresight before we place the directional signs or the directional wayfinding signs—to make sure that we're not missing where we should be having a direction because there's not a trail now but in a year and a half there will be? [16:32] **Mike Cordis:** Well, and to your point, um, that's one of the reasons we didn't want to place any of them initially. We wanted to focus more so on getting the ID signs to, you know, "Here's the park." If it develops in a different way or we connect a trail somewhere or something like that, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves on that. We want to make sure that we're placing these signs in the proper spot because they're going to be expensive by the time it's all said and done. But we want to make sure that we're purposeful when we put this stuff together. **Committee Member (Male):** Absolutely. Thank you. Yep. [17:11] **Dave:** Yeah, Mike, I'm a little concerned about with the... I guess more the terminology. I'm fine with the design—we've gone through this, that looks good—but the request is to approve a "Master Plan," but it doesn't seem like there's enough detail in here to approve what's a Master Plan. You know, Master Plan would seem to have the locations laid out, the pricing, and so forth. But um, so I'm more concerned about the terminology being used in what you're looking for for approval on, as opposed to the concept. I'm perfectly fine moving forward with what's here, but I'm a little concerned about calling it a Master Plan when... [17:58] **Mike Cordis:** Well, I did hold some of the detail out of it that shows bolt patterns, that shows footings and things like that. I could have shown that, I guess, but I just I didn't put it in the presentation. **Dave:** Yeah, we understand that. **Eric Carlson:** Mr. Chair, members of the committee, maybe this will help a little bit. So we're asking the committee to consider a recommendation to approve the Sign Master Plan so that it's the design, it's the font, it's the color, it's the layout, it's the different signs that we get to choose from. Once the City Council does—assuming you'll do that this evening—the City Council does the same at their meeting in on February 22nd, I believe is the date, we would bring back a more detailed plan of, "Okay, now we want to put these signs in these locations in these parks." And we're probably not going to do them all at once; we're going to probably do a third of them or something like that. But we'll have more specifics as to the signs, the locations, etc. So then you can then approve that batch, if you will, and we'll do three or four batches before we kind of get close to done. And so that'll be more of the specifics that I think you might be thinking about in your comments. [19:20] **Dave:** Is that... no, the process makes sense. It's just calling it a—approving a Master Plan that isn't final seems odd. So maybe we could call it "The initial steps of the Master Plan" or something like that. **Eric Carlson:** I'd be fine with that. And you're certainly welcome to make a motion to that effect if you like. **Dave:** Okay, well then I'll do that. I'd like to make a motion that we approve the initial steps of the Sign Master Plan as presented in our information packet. [20:05] **Brent Schultz:** Okay. Can we just table that for a second? Dave, I see someone in the audience is raising his hand; he might have something to say about this. **Eric Carlson:** Mr. Chair, you might want to just get a second and then have discussion and allow the public to just make a comment, because right now I think you have a motion. **Brent Schultz:** Okay, so then what... okay, so what is the motion, Dave? **Dave:** To approve the initial steps of the Sign Master Plan as presented this evening. **Brent Schultz:** The initial steps? Okay, I'll second that. Okay, so then we have a second. All right, so now we're looking for discussion. Okay, sir, would you like to come up to the podium and tell us your name and address and tell us what's on your mind? [20:49] **Brad Blackett:** All right. Hi, my name is Brad Blackett, and I live at 457 Reflection Road on the western side of the city. And I just want to continue an observation or suggestion about the signs themselves. Chairman Schultz, you were talking about the "swish" and how it loses into the background stuff. My thoughts—and I'm just going to throw it out there—is that it looks like every other park agency sign that has the swish in it as well. And I was thinking you should perhaps be considering something that makes it more distinctive for the City of Apple Valley. [21:38] **Brad Blackett:** So there's not the confusion: Is this Dakota County Parks? Is this Three River Park District? Is this, you know, the City of Bloomington's park? Because the signs, they all have that swish in them—the same design. But at the same time, that tells everybody this is a park; it's related to a park. So there's that unified type of look for the sign. So I don't know if people have had that discussion. I thought that the logo on the swish could be expanded in that word "Apple Valley" to help lessen that white space to make it more visible. [22:23] **Brad Blackett:** And that's just one thought. The other one is very quick and a short thing: When you're including the icons on some of the signs, have you thought about putting a QR code on that sign? So somebody could use their phone and take a snapshot of that and download a map of the trails or the park, or even maybe some of the special events that are coming up could pop up on their phone and they could see what's going on. Or if they're confused about the field that they're supposed to be headed to, they could see the reservations and what team is playing where. That could be picked up right on their phone, maintained on the web, easy. You don't have to change any signs; you don't have to have a big whiteboard or a lit-up LED board telling people where to go during a tournament and things like that. So that's just two comments I have, and I just thought I'd pass it on for consideration to include in the final design. Not that it affects the placement of the signs at all—you know, that's what you're really here for is to go for the concept. I'd just like to add some things to that concept. Thank you. [23:55] **Brent Schultz:** Thank you, Brad. You know, I just... off the cuff here, I mean, many, many hours have been spent on the design of the sign itself. You know, we've had public input and this committee, staff, you know, everybody has massaged this thing and we think it's a very fine design as it is. It incorporates our new park logo, the colors, you know, everything. All right, so I haven't been part of that, right? **Brent Schultz:** But I do say, I mean, I do think that that QR code idea might have some promise. I mean, it's just what Craig was talking about, you know. I mean, if there's two areas that are not connected yet with a trail and there will be a trail, maybe with the QR code you could show that pending, or to be completed in 2025 or whatever it is. I don't know, is that a reasonable thought process or something that maybe should be investigated? [24:58] **Committee Member (Female):** I think my concerns with that are just an ongoing maintenance of making sure that the links are properly maintained as the city website changes. That becomes an issue. And then I know with QR codes it's very precise—the pattern between the dark and the light areas of the code. So I think it's a valid idea, but my concern would be somebody walks up with a key and scratches part of the QR code and then all of a sudden it's broken and it doesn't work and it will never work again unless we fix that. So I think that we would have to be very intentional about where it would be used and how it would be maintained, because it's a great concept, but I'd just be afraid of keeping it alive for the 10, 15, 20 years that these signs are for our parks. [25:46] **Committee Member (Male):** I would just say, I love the creativity and kind of thinking ahead. I would agree that there's been a lot of effort put into the logo and the color palettes here. And the QR codes are great technology right now and ever-changing, but again, looking at this, we want to make sure these signs... we're not replacing them, and we're putting them in to last as long as they can, if not longer. And again, with QR codes, it's one specific website. To update that and the staff intensity on that, and having them all over the city, I think would be really hard to do. The other thing that you have to be very careful with these days with QR codes out in the public is the corruption of them and people changing them enough and directing them to malicious or fake websites and things like that. So there is a vandalism, security, and just overall maintenance piece of it that is pretty intensive. So I really love the idea and I love thinking ahead like that; I just think on permanent signage probably not the best place for it, is my two cents. [27:12] **Brad Blackett:** But I would have to disagree. When I was on the Cemetery Committee, I had proposed a QR code to be placed on the tombstones to let people know—to tie in with a map so people could find their relative. And I actually moved over to here to this committee before I saw fruition, and whatever they did with that, I don't know. But a metal tag... a metal tag with a plastic coating on it is how a lot of cemeteries had come up with that solution so they weren't being vandalized. And it's not an expensive solution; it's... put the metal tag on there, it gets vandalized, slap another one on there. They're small. [28:10] **Brent Schultz:** Well, so I think we might just have to leave that there. I mean, I think we've presented the idea and I think the city staff will incorporate that if they feel it's appropriate. In the meantime, we do have a motion and a second to approve the initial steps of sign placement. So I think we should call for a vote on that now. So all those in favor please say aye. **Committee Members:** Aye. **Brent Schultz:** Opposed? That motion is carried. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is the Midwinter Fest—or as we've been calling it, the Early Spring Fest. [28:57] **Eric Carlson:** Mr. Chair, members of the committee, so we're having some technical difficulties with the screen behind you. It's on your screen in front of you, but it's not on the screen behind you. From what we understand from our staff, it is working at home. But we're going to let them continue to work on it, the technical part of it, and we're going to have Steve Rather give his presentation first with the hopes that by the time he's done, they've got the technical side of it fixed and working properly. And then we'll have the Midwinter Fest presentation. And if we have to modify that some way, shape, or form, we'll do that because that's what we do in Parks and Recreation. If it's not snowing, we'll still have Midwinter Fest. Sounds good. We're going to have Steve give a presentation, please. [29:50] **Steve Rather:** Good evening, Chairman and members of the board. Steve Rather, Park Maintenance Supervisor. And I'm going to give you a quick update, which I was expecting to be a winter update—it looks more like a pre-spring update. Kind of our regular goals, mission statement, and keys to success for the city. [30:17] **Steve Rather:** And then outdoor rinks, which many of you know have been shut down already. We started flooding January 8th. We had good weather, nice and cold finally. We had flooded previously a couple of days in December, only for it to melt right away. We were able to make nice ice at the activity center and open that and the warming house on the 15th. All the other sites were open on January 18th. Unfortunately, on January 25th, we had to close them all down because of the high temperatures. It just wasn't safe anymore. Looking back from December 1st up to January 24th, of the 55 days, 32 were at 32 degrees or above for high temperatures. So, we did what we could, but it just didn't happen this year. [31:18] **Steve Rather:** Snow plowing—same thing. Not your normal winter. We've had a total of... I've seen anywhere from 5 to 7 inches of snow, which is still not a lot. We plowed a total of 85 hours this year. Last year at season end, we had 90 inches of snow and over 2,500 hours of plowing within park responsibilities—trails, parking lots, and whatnot. Which has worked out well; we're a couple of people short right now, and when there's a full snow plow, seven of our Park Maintenance staff have dedicated routes for the Streets Department. So when it does snow, we get quite behind or we're understaffed a little bit. [32:13] **Steve Rather:** A lot of you have heard about Emerald Ash Borer. Within maintained areas of the Parks Department, we have over 600 ash trees when that count was done in 2022. Maintained areas meaning basically we mow around it; in forested areas, we don't have a good number on that. We have removed 185 of those trees so far—94 by contractors, including a grant in 2023, and then in-house we've removed 91 ourselves with park staff. [32:51] **Steve Rather:** Currently, we are working with Natural Resources on a tree removal contract. They'll remove another 77 ash trees from parks and then several boulevard trees—it's actually I believe in the 70 range for on boulevards, too. Contract is now out, I've been told, with a completion date of May 31st. This will remove all the untreated ash trees north of 140th Street within the parks. We do have treated ash trees that will remain at Galaxy Park and Huntington Parks. [33:38] **Steve Rather:** On the other side of that, we have planted 195 trees within parks in the last five years. A portion of that in conjunction with Eagle Scout projects, donated and dedicated trees, and then part of the grant was replanting at a one-to-one basis. And then just general park improvements, we've added trees also. We planted 21 different species of trees. So instead of the monoculture of ash trees, we're increasing our diversity. Some of the maintenance we're doing on it throughout the summer is weekly watering and the use of Gator bags, which are the green bags you see at the base of trees—fill them up, they slowly water. And then of course, newly planted trees are getting structural pruning. [34:36] **Brent Schultz:** Hey, Steve, just because you're changing to a different subject here—how do you decide what trees get treated and which ones don't? [34:47] **Steve Rather:** It started years ago, I think Natural Resources had taken the lead on that. They picked some of them... they knew we were going to lose the majority of them over time. So for instance, in front of Fire Station 1 at Apple Grove Park years ago, we started planting other trees; we've got some maple trees in front of there. So the ash trees were acting as kind of a nurse tree to let the other ones grow up. And as far as the ones that were picked, they were the healthiest-looking ones, the ones that were creating the most shade—some on playgrounds, some in different areas. So I don't know the exact reason they picked the ones they did or the parks they did. **Committee Member:** Do you know how many are being treated? **Steve Rather:** I don't have an exact number. I know Galaxy has, I believe, 12, and Huntington will have about 20 that are currently treated. We're going throughout the city actually counting. Natural Resources has a map, but we're finding it to be inaccurate, so we have to go out and basically check all the other trees, see if they're treated. And that's every two years they have to be treated. If they got missed in a cycle, they have rapidly declined now. So if they're treated in 2020 and not in '22, they're rapidly declining, so then they'll be removed too. **Committee Member:** If a resident... do we have a company that we can refer residents to? **Steve Rather:** The city has a list of licensed tree contractors, and they can choose from that. I believe it's on the website. [36:47] **Committee Member (Female):** So as far as moving forward, it's great that in 2023 there was a one-to-one replant for all trees that were removed. Is that something that is going to continue as we remove these 77 plus the boulevards, or what's kind of the replant strategy as we continue forward? [37:10] **Steve Rather:** I'm not sure if there's still a grant for 2024 that has the same kind of condition. This is not part of a grant; this is with dedicated city money. I think it's $1.1 million the city set aside for ash tree removal. So as they become, basically as they die more, they're becoming brittle and becoming more dangerous. So right now the goal is to have them removed, so safety is the first step. **Committee Member (Female):** Absolutely. **Steve Rather:** And then right now, we don't have a design plan for replanting, but there's also a lot of maintenance trying to water the trees we have right now. We have a summer like we did this year and it's every week we're trying to get out to every tree, and it takes a while. So we don't want to just plant them and then have them die. [38:15] **Brent Schultz:** And Steve, just to clarify, your role is again the trees in the parks, not the ones on the boulevard and the right-of-way. Is that done by Parks as well, or is that done by Public Works? **Steve Rather:** Public Works and the Street Department. **Brent Schultz:** So just making sure that... and there's a different policy for not replanting trees in the right-of-way boulevards, if I understand correctly. [38:43] **Eric Carlson:** Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, so I can give you a little update on that. So we decided—the city staff recommended to the council—that we did set aside enough dollars to remove the ash trees over a two-year period. And so 2024 is the first year of that two-year period. Boulevard trees along the street are being removed, and if it's in the front yard of a resident property, I don't know the exact dollar amount, but they're being offered in essence a coupon to purchase a tree that they put outside of the boulevard area—so in their front yard—that then they are responsible to maintain and hopefully keep alive. And if it dies, that's on them. [39:27] **Eric Carlson:** But if they purchase the tree, the city will give them a monetary reimbursement. But the tree has to be planted outside of the boulevard. The thought being that if it's in their yard and they're responsible for it, they'll take more pride and a little more effort to try to keep it alive than if we put it on the boulevard where a lot of people feel like it's the city's job. And we just don't have the resources to try to keep alive that many trees on the boulevard. And quite frankly, we are struggling, as Steve outlined, struggling in the park system to keep young trees alive given some of the drought that we've experienced the last few years. So hopefully that provides a little bit of additional information. **Committee Member:** Thank you. How many feet from the street counts as being in the boulevard? **Steve Rather:** Usually, typically I believe it's 13 feet, but it varies throughout the city. **Committee Member:** 13 feet from the curb? **Steve Rather:** Correct. **Brent Schultz:** Go ahead and keep going, Steve. Sorry we got hung up on trees here. [40:17] **Steve Rather:** It happens. And then moving on, some general updates: Planning for Midwinter Fest; a lot of preseason ordering going on—athletic, cleaning and safety supplies, equipment, seed, fertilizer orders for the season, and routine and preventative equipment maintenance, an ongoing thing. Shop cleanup and organization—picture there shows you the "after," which... I should have put a "before" in there, but maybe I'm a little embarrassed by what we had started with, but making great improvements. [41:00] **Steve Rather:** And then trash barrel painting. Part of the county ordinance says all of our trash barrels have to be gray or black and recycling cans all have to be blue. So we're making sure those are all done. And hopefully in March, we'll be able to get another batch of barrels in that we can get painted and back out in the system. [41:25] **Steve Rather:** Staff updates: We do have two full-time positions open right now. Throughout the winter, we continue on with our training. Jared Miller, Justin Lewis, and myself completed our pool operator classes and testing—we just finished that today and I'm happy to say we all passed. Al Leon completed Minnesota Pollution Control smart salting certification. Coming up, Tim Lam will be going to certified playground school, tree short course; we'll be sending Justin Lewis, Jeff Sloter, and Mike Cordis. And then as an ongoing for all maintenance every two years, we rotate through having CPR/AED/First Aid training. And then seasonal positions are available, posted on the website now, and a couple applications are starting to come in. So we've got 25 positions in park maintenance that we'll be looking to fill. So that's all I have. Any questions? [42:32] **Brent Schultz:** I don't think so, Steve, but thank you very much. **Steve Rather:** Thank you. **Brent Schultz:** Full of information as usual. Looks like we still have a dark screen behind us. [42:47] **Eric Carlson:** Yep. So we do have a dark screen, but you can see it on your monitor in front of you and the people viewing at home should be able to see it. We're going to have Bill come up and do his presentation and he'll just trust us that the video is playing somewhere in la-la land. [43:05] **Bill:** Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee. I'll briefly touch on Midwinter Fest and then we'll go into the video; it kind of breaks it all down better than I will. But we are moving forward. I mean, obviously, we have no snow and ice, so some of those activities will not take place. But we still have plenty to do for families and kids, especially kids. So I invite the public and I invite you to come on out and join us. [43:40] **Bill:** Kicks off with the Medallion Hunt. It's actually one of the oldest medallion hunts in the state—I was told by some professional medallion hunters. It started in 1978, so we've been every year since then. Food—we'll have food trucks, we'll have various beverages available. This year's kind of theme... we've got a slew of mascots coming out. We have Goldie Gopher, we have Mudonna from the St. Paul Saints, TC Bear, as well as our city mascots from various departments. So that'll be fun. [44:27] **Bill:** What else? I have flyers in the back if anyone would like to pick one up on the way out. And I just wanted to thank our sponsors, too—it's very important. The Apple Valley Hockey Association, the Eastview Hockey Association, the Rotary Club of Apple Valley, the Apple Valley Arts Foundation is sponsoring the band, the musical entertainment which starts at 5:00 p.m. And we also had Bogart's jump on board this week, so we thank them. And once the music concludes at around a little before 7:00 o'clock, we'll have a fireworks show that'll wrap the event up. And I think that's all I really had. Does anyone have any questions? [45:10] **Committee Member:** Yeah, one question. I believe when we did the wrap-up on the Midwinter Fest last year, there was commentary about increasing the number of fire pits and reducing the heating lamps, or whatever they're called. Is there an update on... did that go forward or what's the status? **Bill:** Yeah, there will be no propane tower heaters or lower fire pit propane heaters. It'll all be... the heat will be fueled by hardwood. **Committee Member:** Thank you. **Bill:** Will we need them? It's questionable. I mean, we even have the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority warming bus; not sure if we need it, but they were kind enough to come out. [46:04] **Brent Schultz:** Well, I don't have any questions, Bill, but you know, I mean, I've personally been to several of these events in the last few years; it's always a good time and I encourage everyone to attend. **Bill:** Yeah, I think the best decision we made was to make it a true outdoor event and it really kind of turned it around and I think it's a lot of fun. **Brent Schultz:** It is a lot of fun. Yeah. Okay, well, thank you so much. **Bill:** Yeah, thank you. [46:33] **Bill (Narrating Video):** Ready for Apple's Midwinter Fest? What happened to winter? That's okay, we can still get out and have some fun. So grab your sunglasses and join us Saturday, February 3rd, from 3:00 to 7:00 at Johnny Cake Park West. We'll have activities for the whole family, including kite flying, a kids' dance DJ, and three-hole disc golf. Plus, we'll have garden cart rides provided by the Apple Valley Police Department, bag toss, horse-drawn carriage rides, and the coloring contest featuring this handsome bear. [47:04] **Bill (Narrating Video):** Plus, be sure to stop by and take a photo with a few of my friends, including TC Bear from the Minnesota Twins and Mudonna, St. Paul Saints, and our own Sparky the Fire Dog and McGruff the Crime Dog. Don't forget you can still look for the Midwinter Fest Medallion for your chance to win a $250 cash prize, which has been hidden in one of Apple Valley's 56 parks. Clues will be posted every hour beginning 9:00 a.m. on Apple Valley's Parks and Recreation Facebook page. [47:33] **Bill (Narrating Video):** And after an afternoon of fun activities, be sure to stay for live music starting at 5:00 with Minnesota's premier '90s cover band, "Flannel," sponsored by the Apple Valley Arts Foundation. And while you're here, be sure to get something to eat from The Brick Oven Pizza bus or the Go BBQ food truck. And if you're thirsty, walk over to Rascal's Bar and Grill booth for wine and beer, or pick up a cup of hot chocolate or hot cider provided by the Apple Valley Rotary Club. And if the sun is too hot, we'll have the Minnesota Transit Authority bus to relax in. And there wouldn't be a celebration without fireworks, and we have a great show for you at 7:00. For a full list of activities and times, visit the city's website at applevalleymn.gov. So come join me and have fun at Apple Valley's Midwinter Fest Saturday, February 3rd, from 3:00 to 7:00 at Johnny Cake Park West. Don't hibernate this winter—celebrate it! Jackets are optional, though. [48:40] **Brent Schultz:** Oh, that's cute. Well done. So is that going to be on the city's website, Bill? **Bill:** It is, yeah. It's on the city's website; it's been posted on the city Facebook page as well as the Parks and Rec page. So it is out there. And I wanted to mention Harry Klein does a tremendous job with the videos, so a thanks to Harry. **Brent Schultz:** Yeah, it was cute. Yeah. All right, well, thank you again. **Bill:** Thank you. [49:10] **Brent Schultz:** Okay, um, that brings us really to the end of the agenda, unless there are any comments or questions by the committee or anything not already on the agenda or discussed tonight. [49:25] **Eric Carlson:** Mr. Chair, members of the committee, if I could. So, for those watching at home, we want to make sure that we recognize Brent as our chair and a member of the Parks Committee for the last 14 years. I'm not sure, but something like that—we believe it's 14 years. If we're wrong, we apologize, but we think it's plus or minus 14 years you've been here. You've been an active part of the Parks Committee. You've helped talk about a lot of issues—pickleball being one of them, which I know you talked about until you were maybe sick to your stomach. [50:06] **Eric Carlson:** But you've been an active member, you've been a positive member of the Parks Committee. We appreciate your support. You've been very active and involved in the parks referendum process and obviously that turned out to be a very successful process. So we're sad to see you go, but we're also happy that you get to leave on your terms and you get to spend more time with your family. And I'm sure you'll pay attention and watch us and make sure that we're still doing good things. **Brent Schultz:** Absolutely, yeah. **Eric Carlson:** And maybe call us or show up to a meeting if we're maybe not going the direction you'd like us to go. **Brent Schultz:** There's that 10 minutes every meeting, you know—we may shorten it to one! No, I... thank you, Eric. You know, I've really enjoyed all my time on the committee. I think it's time to hang up my gavel and turn things over to the younger folks. [51:00] **Brent Schultz:** And actually, I think this is an excellent time to do that. I mean, the city staff, I think, is awesome. This is one of the best committees that we've had in years. And I mean, I just think about things like Valleywood Golf Course—I mean, four or five years ago it was a facility that some people were thinking should be sold, and now it's something that we're all proud of. And especially the whole food and beverage thing—that was incredible. And Eric, that's really on you; that was a master stroke. But there's a number of situations like that. So I think it's a good time to be leaving, and I feel good—not that I had that big of influence—but I feel good about my time here. And you will be seeing me from time to time at events and meetings. So, thank you very much. [52:05] **Eric Carlson:** Thank you, Brent. **Committee Members:** Thanks, Brent. [Applause] **Brent Schultz:** With that, we'll look for a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting. **Committee Member:** I'll make a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting. **Committee Member:** Second. **Brent Schultz:** Okay, we have a motion and a second to adjourn. All those in favor say aye. **Committee Members:** Aye. **Brent Schultz:** Opposed? It's carried. The meeting is adjourned. [52:16] [Music]