This transcript features the **Oakdale Parks and Recreation Commission** meeting from February 20, 2024. Based on the context provided and the dialogue within the meeting, here is the attributed transcript. [00:00] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** good evening welcome to the February 20th 2024 Oakdale parks and recck commission meeting we have take the role it looks like all the Commissioners are here tonight I want to W welcome everyone back from winter solstice that we had so it's good to see everyone so um everyone's here and Julie and Jeff are here Andy's here so welcome all again so we um can we all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance [00:25] **All:** I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America to for which it stands one nation indivisible with liy and justice for all [00:35] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** thank you all right we this little new agenda so first of all has everyone had a chance to look at our agenda for this evening okay I'm going to need a motion to approve the agenda [00:45] **Jan DeWitt (Commissioner):** a motion Jan we have one motion [00:47] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** can I get a second [00:48] **Glenn Barott (Commissioner):** I'll second [00:49] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** second all in favor I opposed agenda passes everyone take a look at the minutes from October 17th 2023 that's a long time ago that was a long time ago it was a long time ago was there any questions concerns on those minutes I get a motion to approve those minutes [01:05] **Jan DeWitt (Commissioner):** I moved [01:06] **Glenn Giakalos (Commissioner):** I'll second it [01:07] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** second all in favor I I opposed motions are passed we have an open Forum now we're starting with the parks and rec commission uh when the audience is here when people come we'll give them three minutes to come up and say hi to us and tell us how great a job we're doing so we will appreciate that at all times and it looks like uh there is no one here tonight so we will move on we'll go to our old business does anyone have any old business we'd like to talk about okay I don't think so new business we have PRC organizational updates and it'll be Julie [01:45] **Julie Williams (Recreation Superintendent):** yeah right thank you um so you can see I included a memo um with some organizational updates um that's affecting all of the advisory bodies but um speaking specifically to ours the city council reviewed and approved a number of changes to our advisory bylaws city ordinance and City policies that pertain to Parks and Recreation Commission so there's three different areas um The Parks and Recreation Commission bylaws were repealed in their entirety the majority of the information compiled in the bylaws are now included in a standard operating policy and also changes adopted including um removing mentions of PRC bylaws and simplifying the commissioner appointment process and then lastly um a city standard operating policy now includes information from the bylaws of the Parks and Recreation Commission and other advisory commissions so basically they're just shifting things there hasn't been a lot of changes um I will speak to what those are um so we are changing the meeting frequency of our meetings so no meetings will occur in January March June and December so we dropped a couple meetings um they'll still occur on the third Tuesday um of the month at 7 in the ccil chambers here um another change is our order of business um we added the approval of the agenda and we also added the open Forum also um we added the annual plan that we worked on um this past year and then also annual training will also happen I think that may happen in April um stay tuned on that on that [03:30] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** do we all go together is that just you know [03:32] **Julie Williams (Recreation Superintendent):** I'm not exactly sure how that's going to um work if I I think it probably will happen at our April meeting oh okay and it might just be a PowerPoint but stay tuned for that [03:45] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** all right okay okay thank you thank you onward now is the time for elections so did everyone get the little um process for elections here okay first of all we will need nominations uh for the candidates of chair and chair Vice chair so let's start out with the nominations for the chair anybody like to nominate somebody for chair [04:05] **Jan DeWitt (Commissioner):** nominate you Steve [04:06] **Glenn Barott (Commissioner):** okay I'll second that [04:08] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** all right anybody else want to nominate anyone okay now do I close that one Julie or do we go [04:15] **Julie Williams (Recreation Superintendent):** yep so we want to make a motion [04:17] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** okay so nominate okay so we'll make a formal notion to nominate Steve Meyer for chair of the Oakdale Parks and Rec commission motion [04:25] **Jan DeWitt (Commissioner):** I'll second [04:26] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** okay we have a motion and a second all in favor I opposed and then a motion to nominate the um VI the vice chair so I need a v motion to nominate Vice chair are there any nominations are there any nominations [04:45] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** I'll nominate Glenn jaalto [Giakalos] [04:47] **Jan DeWitt (Commissioner):** any other nominations I'll nominate Glenn bar [Barott] yeah [04:51] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** any other nominations okay so the nominations are closed so now we go on to an election right and then we have to sign right so everybody has their their sheets there has their sheets y so sign it and then send them down send them down Glenn I don't know all the other last Steve you can only vot Glen [Music] once so everybody got a pen I'm good an initial stressful vote I've ever done should there have been speeches yeah oh yeah I don't know it's not all right yep okay all right so with a vote of four to three Glen G [Giakalos] Will Remain the vice and so now I need um you to make a motion for both can I get a motion to nominate Glenn for vice chair [06:05] **Jan DeWitt (Commissioner):** all motion [06:06] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** can I get a second back [06:07] **Glenn Barott (Commissioner):** all in favor I opposed [06:10] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** congratulations Glenn nice congratulations to both of you y okay next our staff updates Jeff you want to go first [06:20] **Jeff Koesling (Parks Superintendent):** sure uh good evening um I'll just touch on some of the stuff we've uh had a pretty late winter obviously we all wear that um we had a nine n and a half 10day rink season from the time we finally got them open uh we had to wait quite a while we didn't have them open for the holiday Christmas holiday the weather just didn't cooperate at 54 56 degrees on Christmas day so rain so when we did get the Colder Weather we had them up and and rolling in like six days so um it was uh and they did get used quite a bit I'm sure Julie has numbers I don't want to steal her Thunder here tonight I'm sure you have the no I it was a n 9 and a half 10 day season and then we got the weather we had the trailers both warming houses uh they've been removed I got them out of there right away when we decided we weren't going to move forward um so that was interesting we haven't seen that in a while um and then we're moving forward we got a lot of CIP projects coming up this summer um this season I should say um [07:25] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** question Jee [Jeff] just going back to the warming houses when you pulled them earlier than we thought did the city save anything on that or we [07:32] **Jeff Koesling (Parks Superintendent):** um I'm not sure yet I yeah I I don't know what the contract exactly was on that if it was month to month but I can find that out for you but I just I don't want them sitting there a vandalism no sense anything so it's I wanted to get them out before the ground got real soft while we had that opportunity so we got them out of there um uh moving on I'll just we got the lighting project for field one through four over here we're working with contractors on that right now uh there's Consultants we have a consultant that interested in assisting us which that has to go through administr Administration and approval of that um it's a pretty big project that will probably not take place till late summer early fall we won't interrupt the ball season to do that and they can usually complete it once everything's there in like three weeks two to three weeks it won't take them long they did look at all the uh poles the lighting there's one in question otherwise they can reuse most of them they they've got a 60e life span on those so I think they've been there for 30 now so they just retrofit them and and put the LEDs on there so be interesting to see how that turns out and working on I know we have we're looking at Guthrie park for a volleyball court whether we're going to do the turf or the sand I think people were sort of interested in in moving towards the turf we've got options for that bids on that and uh as I stated in our our previous uh prior meeting um they just they started clear cutting our area for our new Public Works facility down in 32nd in Granada it looks sure looks different in the last four days they they took it out of there pretty quick so that's exciting to see for us um and then we also had uh did a tour last week for with srf on the future of the parks planning and they'll be doing a presentation in the April meeting to the Park and Recreation Commission um great group to work with and that will lead me into the the Willowbrook Commons park that they uh they received I think approximately eight contractors that bid on it they're waiting to award the bid and that you're going to see it's going to start going here this spring so they're going to start putting that Park in first phase of it um I'm excited it's taken almost two years to plan it we meet bi-weekly at first it was weekly and it's ready to roll it's going to be nice so it's it's going to have the challenge course and two tot Lots from the um two to five and five to 12 and it'll have a nice uh shelter up there with you know it's going to be a beautiful Park so it's excited it'll be excited to see how that after all the planning start something to start happening and come to fruition so [11:00] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** how full do you know is are those units over there [11:04] **Jeff Koesling (Parks Superintendent):** they're putting them up daily yeah they selling out pretty it's if you don't drive through there for like two weeks and you go up there you're like wow they don't mess around it's crazy there's houses popping up all over those new ones by the Target that they're yeah so I know I sort of Buzz through that we haven't met for a while but stand for any questions or any [11:25] **Commissioner Mark:** yeah when are the fields going to be open next week [11:27] **Jeff Koesling (Parks Superintendent):** oh not that my well you know it's common just earlier when we had that dry spell I was waiting for know I'm already telling people not to start asking that question I said we haven't gotten on until May the last I'm used to it Mark it's all good you learned to it's it's every spring we're good with it so yes [11:50] **Jan DeWitt (Commissioner):** Jan what are the chances that there'll be a pickle ball court in will [Willowbrook] [11:55] **Jeff Koesling (Parks Superintendent):** that's it won't be in this first park it will not be located there if it is it'll be in a future one of the two that are up there so yeah [12:05] **Jan DeWitt (Commissioner):** and then I have a second question yes um when you're saying like East Side park had all those trees taken up yep is that out of a parks and Rex budget or that's out of [12:15] **Jeff Koesling (Parks Superintendent):** out of the forestry yeah it comes out of yeah okay it's an environmental we have to take they have to remove them so um and they'll replant they'll replace them with trees um but yeah it's the winter is the best time they're sort of normant at that time and they can get in and do it without creating damage we did created they got in and left some ruts in east side we'll fix that up but it was like I say again it's the weather it's what we we've been handed so but yeah it's all EAB stuff I think they got through most of our parks where they had to come down but yeah yeah it's it's crazy you hate to see it you drive all over you used to go down streets in St Paul Beau and now it's wide open so it's it's everywhere yeah so it's sort of sad to see but yeah [13:05] **Commissioner:** I just had a really quick question on the east side hockey count here yep because I I would walk by it almost every day and I only saw one time [13:13] **Jeff Koesling (Parks Superintendent):** if you're not there at night you're missing it oh really CU that's when they were there buy that's our most that's our busiest rink you got to go at night okay okay yeah they're there they're in school during the day if you go at night it's crazy there okay that's what I was wondering I was just curious that is not a typo [13:30] **Commissioner:** okay yeah I had a question um just to expand a little on the earlier question how does a warmer weather or a warmer winter affect like the maintenance in the budget and that kind of stuff and Julie I'll ask you the same question about programs lateration but how does it affect where do we save where do we spend [13:50] **Jeff Koesling (Parks Superintendent):** yeah so so you know we we have to book them trailers those two for the warming also of the temps um as far as staff wise we're out usually cleaning and flooding rinks daily till from sometimes or mid November late November through the end of February Fe depending once we get to mid-February it starts to that's when the sun gets a little higher and it's harder to keep the ice but and then again we have if we're not doing that and it's snows every one of our members on our cruise we have four divisions they're all plowing they all have plow routes um we haven't had that so last year we I think we had 56 events that we plowed or so went out and salted so this year I think I can count on two hands where we've had to send them out full plows been one and a half two so just the one last week and then there was one in October or no yeah November I think it was right around Halloween we had it so we've gone out and salted but it's we had we think we paid for it last year and we're getting a little pre but um council member morham [Morcomb] I think joked with me at the beginning we don't have to order salt for next year we don't and if you order it you have to take the delivery our salt shed at our shop is complete we just took 100 ton it's crazy [15:15] **Commissioner:** will that impact other storage for later in the year [15:18] **Jeff Koesling (Parks Superintendent):** it shouldn't because we're good so um yeah it's just it's just been what we haven't seen this in a hundred years so here so that to answer your question or were you looking at yeah a surplus or yeah like just understanding like were there extra costs because or did we lose Revenue because we weren't doing something or [15:40] **Jeff Koesling (Parks Superintendent):** I mean it got to really it it was you know we're not we're not playing we're excuse me we're not paying rink attendant right um there's a cost savings there we're not using water we're not using equipment fuel wearing tearing the equipment cleaning The Rinks every day plowing that's a huge equipment going down there with the trucks and load Motors and and sidewalk machines and fuel so we've got to be on the plus side compared to where we were but I don't know if we have a huge amount of money extra but that gentleman over there CU he'll deal with that I'm not a big finance major but I know we've we we're definitely better than where we were last year we were in the hole so maybe it evens out I don't know but yeah I don't know if I answered your question but it it was just contextual though I just wanted to know so I think I think you did a great job answering the question thank you appreciate it [16:45] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** excellent any other questions for Jeff thank you Jeff [16:48] **Jeff Koesling (Parks Superintendent):** thank you [16:49] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** Julie [16:50] **Julie Williams (Recreation Superintendent):** thank you so I've I do have the February March update so now I added March since we won't be meeting next month so I'll I'll cover two months of of programming our spring newsletter hit mailboxes last uh month and this current newsletter covers the months of February through May so we've been busy taking registration for for the new season um we've got new recreation software coming we're excited to begin that conversion um and it is called Civic wreck that'll be the new software we're hoping to go live the end of April and that will coincide with our um early summer registration so it's coming up quick and we're really excited to get going with the with the new software there um AARP tax assistance um we are once again acting as a site for ARP on Mondays and that's through April 22nd all appointments are booked and they have been for at least a month so yeah they they fill up quick so if if anybody's interested in next year I recommend you call that first business day in January um we've got the Endor Market having a great season um really good numbers uh we reached over 400 at the January 27th Market um getting close to being done here um only have three markets remaining we've got one on Saturday here so Nathan's doing a really good job with with the markets and really great Community event and happy to see um the community support so well as well um our snowshoe rentals right so we don't have any snow um we've had no rentals yet but L is not over you never know we right we know so you never know so if it does happen as a reminder rates are $6 per person for a 2hour rental we've got sizes for both adult and kids and if you do have a group of six or more we request that you make a reservation through through our department you can just give us a call we'll get you down for that um Jeff spoke to the ice rinks and warming houses so we are only open a couple days I can skip past that one but I did include the detailed report for a few days that were' open and it compares to the Past um couple years we've got two artists of the month we've got Amber douly coming in um she actually left on February 18th and she had her photographer but beginning February 23rd and that'll run through um the end of March we've got watercolor artist Beth Meyers and she'll bring in her 40 plus paintings to the Discovery Center I don't think we've ever had anybody have over 40 pieces of artwork so it'll be interesting to see how that's laid out and how that looks um we've got Sunday Bingo coming up um continues to be extremely po popular our next event will be on Sunday March 17th and that'll be from 1 to 3 if anybody's interested you got to sign up early for that one because that fills every time as well best no sculpture contest um same story um if we do get any we'll accept entries through March 31st and the um theme this year is Snow animals we've got some employment opportunities we're hiring summer program instructors um applications and job descriptions can be found on our website and we are accepting those through the end of March and we hold our interviews in April so I'm not sure exactly how many will be um hiring this year it'll probably um be around eight um waiting to see how many returners we have but I'm imagining we'll probably have to hire three or four new staff so if you know anybody send them our way um we've got our mystery egg hun coming up um and that'll be Saturday March 30th that is from 9 to 11: again I always one of our biggest events of the Year always um fill that up with with 200 kids once again Larry and Vicky Eberhard of Keller Williams reality will be sponsoring and providing Donuts in we are raffling off to bites once again I looked this morning and we I think there are 50 spots remaining but those will fill as well um we've got our indoor garage sale and that'll be held on Saturday April 6th that's from 9 to one and all of our booths are sold out so we have 23 um that we start with and those filled up really quick as well and then lastly our community walk will resume April 1st and that'll run through October and the rewards will remain unchanged um from 2023 so I'll stand for any questions or comments [21:40] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** he has anything for me [21:42] **Jan DeWitt (Commissioner):** I have a comment um Park Cleanup in the Parks um yes Earth day is what April 22nd or something I'd have to look at my calendar I don't know that off hand but but yeah taking groups to [21:55] **Julie Williams (Recreation Superintendent):** yep if you're interested give us a call and we can get you on that list for Park clean up absolutely yeah it's fun get a group together and yep we always get about 75 to 100 people [22:05] **Jan DeWitt (Commissioner):** you give us the uh bags to put the [22:08] **Julie Williams (Recreation Superintendent):** so we provide the bags and directions on on how to do that so yeah if you're interested give us a call [22:12] **Commissioner:** I know Julie yeah I know we talked about it earli but I would love for the public record to show um the pumpkin hunt was adorable and I haven't seen you since October so I couldn't tell you that um my son had a great time we had a lot of fun out there never done it before so yeah [22:28] **Julie Williams (Recreation Superintendent):** yeah hope we'll be back next year [22:30] **Commissioner:** for the large events like with the excuse me like with the egg hunt I guess that's like the next big event coming up um have you ever thought about doing doing like a sensory tent um for kids that might need to just kind of get away from all the commotion and everything going on um I'm signed well not my daughter signed up for the I hunt this year so I've never been to it it's my first time but in other past events like the winter wonderland and the um the Inflatables event excuse me I mean I know it might be too short notice to even try to think about doing it for the egg hunt but just to kind of put a a a bug in the ear for um some of those big events where you 200 plus kids you know and then it's probably two plus parents that that's a lot of people right A lot of people for absolutely some kids to try to deal with emotionally and right right [23:25] **Julie Williams (Recreation Superintendent):** no you know we haven't really done a lot of that but I can certainly make a note of that and look into it I mean it seems like there's a lot of great sponsors that yeah um the parks rec department has I I'm sure there there's someone out there that would love to help sponsor something like that yeah that's a great idea thanks John yeah I will I will absolutely look into that someone very close to you that might want to get involved with that [23:55] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** okay I think I may have someone thank you great any other questions all right thanks thanks Julie [24:04] **Julie Williams (Recreation Superintendent):** thank you [24:05] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** u next commissioner commissioner anyone have anything else to say anyone no I do you know I do anyone no go ahead [24:15] **Jan DeWitt (Commissioner):** yeah I always have to mention our Wellness 50 plus um we are having a unique um event coming up March 4th it's by a professional organizer who will go over downsizing and organizing your home and that is like I said March 4th from 1: to 2:30 at Discovery Center you can sign up for that event on um the uh typical Discovery Center website email give us the call phone number 651 747 3860 thanks Jan that's all yeah well you can check our our page is always on the um Oakdale update and always refer to that for our other events that we continually do oh yeah [25:05] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** Steve I have many things that's all right put your feet up it's going to be a while [25:10] **Glenn Giakalos (Commissioner):** first off I want to say to the residents of Oakdale and all the volunteers who came to the Lions Club February uh fleece and thank you event final tally is we tied 54 blankets we put together 48 Cancer Care kits and we did over 100 uh Valentine's for the veterans it was a great turnout despite the fact it was the afternoon of Super Bowl Sunday and uh the volunteers I say we Loosely I did very little but um we had a great turnout and you all really helped us out a lot um we have two other events coming up on April 14th we are having a puzzle palusa which from what I understand is a puzzl making contest and whoever finishes The Puzzle first we'll get I believe $100 um first time we're ever doing it so we'll see how that goes there are still we're halfway signed up and I think we have nine or 10 openings for that and just a not I've seen I'm in some uh Nationwide groups like Recreation groups and those like puzzled events are becoming very very popular oh so cool you're on the trend all right that's great um and I know a lot of Oakdale residents have touched base with City Hall already about this but the um Oakdale Maplewood Oakdale Lions Club will again this year sponsor the Oakdale citywide garage sales we are also going to do it for the city of Maplewood as well um same day yeah same uh the dates are going to be May 2nd 3D and 4th and more information will be on our Facebook page so if you don't follow us um please do um because that's where the information and the links all are or you can reach out to me um but we're looking forward to uh doing the garage sales again and um more info to follow wonderful thanks Glen all right we all good [27:10] **Commissioner:** I have one more comment thanks Commissioners I appreciate that I have more oh I'm sorry one more go ahead um so I know I just want to kind of throw this out there now so we kind of start to think about it but with the um consulting company and um with reinvesting a lot back into our Parks um I think it'd be great for all of our residents to get out and see those Parks um so just to try to think of some ideas of some type of like scavenger hunt or you know it's it's kind of too bad we won't have it done for for this year probably with the 50th Anniversary because it would been kind of fun to have like little history facts that each Park they send to or something but um I just want to throw it out there now um just to put the bug in the ear and um just to try to get other residents out to all these parks that we are reinvesting back into [28:10] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** great idea and maybe the parks you know with the public works crew being slower you know if if someone wants to design a I don't know a post with some I don't know I'm just throwing it out there no I I love that interesting interesting so yeah just I I can wait till last am I last right now yeah yeah [28:30] **Jeff Koesling (Parks Superintendent):** I just wanted to uh obviously with the events in the last three days keep the uh families the the First Responders we lost in our thoughts and also our Oakdale First Responders our police and fire um pretty close with some of them men and women and I you know pray they all stay safe and and uh very tragic we've got some great Crews here that protect us around the clock so just want to give a shout out to them and thank you for bringing that up and you know hope they stay safe absolutely absolutely thank you thank you for that all right very good any other comments Commissioners [29:10] **Commissioner:** just a plug with the tree board we'll be having our annual tree uh giveaway come in April end April so it'll be online have have a choice of we picked out four trees so you'll have a nice choice this year [29:25] **Commissioner:** kind of trees [29:26] **Commissioner:** uh we're excuse me uh going I have an oak sorry I would have my species less here if I didn't know if was going to come up um I'm not sure we're going to have a fruit tree though this time uh they're kind of hard to come by but um uh I I can't tell you exactly right now that's good check in with you later we good yep thank you so much [29:50] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** cman workc [Council Member Morcomb] welcome [29:52] **Andy Morcomb (Council Member):** thank you for having me congratulations steveen Glenn on being nominated once again but yeah lots going on in Oakdale it's been a while since we've met the budget was passed with the city in December and to Jeff's point one of the things we decided to invest in as a city because we're growing right now in development people we uh approved in the budget three new police officers to make sure that we're keeping up so a new police captain and two no two new officers that are going to be on the force to support that effort um also all the developments in the city continue to go we talked about all the great events that have been happening with parks and wreck right we didn't mention Winter Wonderland which had thousands of people the demand for the services that we provide are growing and growing uh which is a council right that puts pressure on us to make smart budget decisions but I think for you as a commission this is going to be a very busy year for parks and wck uh the feedback that you get and the advice that you provide is going to really help give us good information so we can make smart choices as a council so this one was a little quieter but I think going forward there's going to be a lot of conversation so welcome all of the ideas all of the feedback that you can provide because it's really going to be important this is going to be a chance with these Consultants to help us set the strategy for the city going forward and that's going to have an impact for decades so lots of good things going in the city I don't even know where to begin U but I will happily stand for questions if you have any questions [31:55] **Jan DeWitt (Commissioner):** Dan really good well thank you so much for serving we appreciate what you do here on the commission [32:01] **Andy Morcomb (Council Member):** we appreciate all you do thank you so much thank you [32:05] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** all right I believe that is the end of this so our next regular meeting will be April 16th uh 2024 so can I get a motion to adjourn [32:15] **Glenn Giakalos (Commissioner):** I'll motion that [32:16] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** and a second [32:17] **Jan DeWitt (Commissioner):** I'll second [32:18] **Steve Meyer (Chair):** all in favor I I thank you very much have a great evening we are jour