monday march 7th 2022 parks and natural resources commission meeting to order tonight at 6 30 p.m tonight's parks and natural resources meeting will be held in person and virtually using zoom as chair i will be leading the parks and natural resources commission meeting and the public is welcome to participate when invited throughout the meeting members of the public may attend the meeting in person or join via online on zoom if attendees experience all your problems we suggest you leave the meeting and then rejoin this usually fixes the issue additional instructions on how to participate are posted online at burnsvillemn.gov in the public meeting calendar as usual tonight's meeting is available for viewing on bctv and the city's website if you are unable to participate in this meeting this evening and would like to submit public testimony i encourage you to email your comments to city staff or mail your comments directly to city hall onto the agenda so first we have citizen comments are there any members of the public or on the zoom meeting who would wish to speak it does not appear that there is anyone tonight and now we'll move on to the election of chair and vice chair um madam chairman can i can i back you up um can we adopt the agenda for tonight first oh yes so any changes to tonight's agenda all right do we have a motion to adopt tonight's agenda i saw a motion all right we have a motion do we have a second second and we have a second all in favor say aye hearing none the um it passes and we've adopted the agenda for tonight all right so now on to the election of let's go with the minutes from the left minutes of west oh look at that i totally skipped a page i'm sorry [Laughter] you're just trying to save paper which i appreciate i was yes so the approval of the minutes um do we have an approval of the minutes are there any changes i should ask for any changes to the minutes from last nothing from staff perfect do i have a motion to approve tonight's minutes welcome to approved minutes we have a motion to approve and a second second and we have a second all in favor say aye anybody opposed and that passes now we can move to the election [Laughter] jj all right uh matters here thank you uh so commissioners this is uh this has been a carry forward from our january meeting and then from our february meeting so uh we pushed this back a few times and now um happy to see all of you here and and in the chambers so that we can move forward with the election of our chair and vice chair um this these roles serve through the remainder of the calendar year and will get us into january of 2023 and then we will hopefully host our election again in 23 so this is something we do on an annual basis to give others that may want an opportunity that opportunity um and and and go from there um in the background i had asked if anybody had an interest in serving please reach out or if anybody had an interest in nominating another person they could please reach out at this time i have heard from our chairman uh shannon wohlmann and i've heard from carlos dabu about their willingness to participate as chair and vice chair as we move forward i would like to ask if there are any others that would like to participate and we have a very old system of voting should you ask or want to nominate another person we will go to a paper ballot and we will have a election in that process so commissioners are there any others that wish to serve as chair or vice chair for the remainder of this year and into january of 23. nope seeing none is there anybody that wishes to make a motion in support of either chairwoman or commissioner dabu as the chair and or vice chair or vice versa however they would like to see that put together i'm i'm i motion that uh we we vote on the on the two uh offers for the positions uh commissioner cleveland in any uh particular order um it's uh it sounds like so it sounds like we have a have interest in both positions so [Music] chairman chairman woman would continue in the current role and and commissioner dabu would be dep would be the uh second vice chair vice chair excuse me we have a motion do we have a second i second thank you commissioners uh can i take a vote do we all those in favor of uh chairman wollman remaining as a chair and commissioner carlos dabu serving as our vice chair through january of 23. all in favor very good motion carries thank you perfect um and now i will invite mr j.j ryan to present the uh review of the parks cip for 2022. all right commissioners this again is a carry forward from earlier in the year that we didn't have a chance to get to but this is one of the things that we do on an annual basis is we review the funding for the parks capital on an annual basis and in your packet you receive a five-year plan that's just to kind of give you a broad overview what we're going to focus on tonight is just the 2022 um funding areas so they've changed how they they the city has changed how we do things we put our spending your capital improvements into five categories they are park improvements park renovation trail system development bituminous and concrete surfaces and then technology and security these are things that we look for major investments in our park system uh things that are valued over ten thousand dollars and things that we can assign a life expectancy to so that we can continue to plan them out as we replace them or as they come into our surface and come into our come into service in our in our parks so let's start with park improvement these are significant upgrades or the addition of new amenities to our park system so our first item is we have a blanket thirty thousand dollars that we are budgeting every year things come up things come up every year or we have a user group that may have an interest or an idea for a project in the park system and we want to implement that so this gives us that flexibility to do that it also covers maybe some overages in some of the other areas that we have the crystal lake beach play equipment is something that we talked about last year i believe the number last year was about two hundred and sixty thousand dollars um that has been increased to three hundred thousand and pushed back to a 2022 project a little asterisk next to that one is that item will be coming back to you later this year we'll have a look at that rendering of what that park can or will look like after the project is complete uh there was there was some money budgeted here for a sidewalk at tennessee park that money has been moved back to 2023 so the 22 thousand dollars there has been push back and then the other item that we've been talking about is that kelleher trailhead building and we're now at about a 1.6 million dollar project for that you've been involved in a few steps along the way there and so that is also another item that once we get a final design on that we'll have that back in front of you for additional review and approval all right uh park renovation projects um a lot of things happening here um these are the repair replacement of existing elements and facilities in the park system so again a 25 thousand dollar lump sum as things come up borders borders are the containers around our volleyball courts or our playgrounds the concrete uh barriers structures that hold everything in place we currently have seventeen thousand dollars budgeted for the border at crystal lake beach um fencing we're at 101 000. that is on hold so there are a number of items that are maybe not specifically listed for crystal i'm sorry oakleaf west but we are putting those projects on hold to continue to fund other things as we go forward um eighty thousand dollars is budgeted for uh the replacement of a hockey rink over at neil park um this is something that's ongoing this is something we do on a regular basis we usually try to take out or pick up one or two a year where we are replacing boards and making sure that chain link and surfaces are are safe and usable we have a 121 thousand dollar irrigation project scheduled for north river hills north river hills is our premier soccer facility um that gets a lot of play from our youth groups and from our uh some of our adults that play there as well and it's it's time it's um that i i don't know the actual number of years the current system has been in place but um based on the number of repairs we are doing out there each and every year it's time to replace that system uh our lighting systems so at a number of our parks have lights whether that's a tennis court a ball field a soccer field football field things like that we are looking to improve the lighting systems at neil and sue fisher one of the things we've been able to do over the past years is lighting technology has improved obviously but also we're able to put those lighting systems on a digital format where we can control those lights going on and off from a computer or from our phone things like that um i can't even recall the number of times uh in the evening driving past lachlan the softball complex on the south end of town seeing the lights are on in the middle of a rainstorm and nobody out there playing where i've been able to go right to my phone and quick turn off the lights and then save the city some money just for the evening uh play equipment replacement so we have a 279 thousand dollars or close to 280 000 uh for the playground equipment at north river hills in a situation like the one in north river hills we are looking to replace the equipment with very similar type equipment it's not like a crystal lake beach where we're looking to make some upgrades or improvements it'll be a similar type playground equipment so that's really not a project that will come back before you because in the end the the hopefully the playground looks the same as when it came out but just with newer newer equipment we've been working with a group that uses the red oak disc golf course to expand our tee boxes so we'll be improving those areas this year as well and then some of our some of our play areas still have sand in in that play area and that's no longer a suitable surface for well for a number of reasons for safety for one but for also ada uh accessibility so we will be removing sand from the south river hills play area and adding fabricated wood chip fibers to that area structures and buildings this is this is new for this year many of you are familiar with the lake ella magnet center for the arts or the house that sits in the allen magnet park that house has become more of a burden it is no longer being used by any other community groups and we are going to be removing that house in the first quarter of hopefully first quarter of 2023 although we're getting very near the end of that um tennis court resurface resurfacing the courts over at red oak receive a lot of play and that surface has has become very worn very quickly causing some slip hazards for those that are playing so we will be resurfacing that court as well as the courts over at pahasapa park our frameworks plan and i think we have it on our agenda to hear more about this at some point during the year maybe later in the year when um our director garrett beck can come back and talk to us about the accomplishments that we've reached in our frameworks plan uh but garrett along with some of our park staff have gone through great lengths to get out to all 76 parks and identify the amenities and features in the parks that either need to be replaced repaired or just removed and so a lot of this is the removal of we saw it out at kelleher park a picnic table out in the woods that no longer serves a purpose for anybody using the park for a good reason we have a number of little uh basketball courts they're um not in great positions in a park and they're just black a blacktop chunk that's kind of busted up a little bit and in a bad area so a bad area of the park that is not very accessible so it's either the replacement of that or just the removal of those types of things so uh and again hopefully uh gary beck will be back later in the year to talk to us about that frameworks plan and the number of things they've been able to accomplish over the last few years um just simple things and how that's saving the city some money and then the last thing we have in this area the scoreboard replacement uh that's for the scoreboards at lo magnet baseball fields number one and two all right uh trail system development uh there's a hundred thousand dollars uh here in this area of ryan peterson is our public works director he's been before you and talked about the regional trail connections things like that there's money budgeted here some of this will be a study some of it will be to verify the connections that need to happen across burnsville in order to make our city more multi-modal i think even uh our city engineer jen desrue was here just back in january to talk about some of the things that they have planned for for improving bikeways and trailways and things like that in our city as well uh the funding in this category um 222 000 uh has allocated for concrete um and bituminous surfaces uh all of that money is being pushed out to 2023 right now so that all that funding is just on hold um this might include maybe the replacement of some of those basketball courts it could include the concrete apron around some of our buildings i know we just redid the concrete apron around neal park and i know that some of them some of the others are in need of that replacement as well so that's where this funding is is coming from but in 2019 we did have a project on the books and that was to replace the basketball court at red oak park the pickleball courts at that time were being done the lions playground all-inclusive playground was being done at that time and we needed to put more city dollars towards those project projects and so we had to put the basketball court on hold the lions club has come forward with another sixty thousand dollars so that we can finish off the park and put the basketball court back in place so for any lions club members that might be listening at home thank you very much um that is a project we will be getting done uh this year for sure the last area we have is technology and security in our parks this is something that's relatively new uh wi-fi in our parks started going in four years ago more demand for that we started adding card swipes to buildings and to some of the security gates and things like that we started adding cameras to some of our parks where it was probably more needed so we've started funding fiber to the parks and the endpoints whether it's a camera or card swipe or card reader or even computers for some of our concession stands things like that these projects there isn't anything specifically listed as we start into our projects for the year our i.t department jumps in and says hey i think we should add fiber here i think we could extend something there and that's when this money starts to get spent and that's kind of an i.t it's involvement with our parks program so it's kind of nice to have that collaboration as well all right so with that uh i think i've told you for a few years now that you will have an opportunity to review a lock levon uh nature play area um that's obviously a project that hasn't happened yet we're gonna get there that's uh i'm told it has to happen this year so uh i will do my best to get that done the crystal lake park master plan um i think there's we're meeting with consultants again on friday of this week to kind of finalize our details so maybe that's something that will be back before you in either april or may and then the kelleher trailhead which will be coming back to you some point in time again hopefully sooner rather than later so commissioners uh with that those are the items i have before you uh regarding the 2022 projects and the 2022 parks cip i will try to answer any of your questions a lot of these projects are are being done with consultants through either our public works department or through our our parks director or we have a person on staff that handles a lot of project work so if you have a question and it needs a little more explanation i will get that answers and i will include that in the next month in the miscellaneous part of our packet as well so commissioners are there any questions commissioner donaldson well i was talking to ryan last fall and he was saying that the trailhead building probably was going to cost almost twice as much and i don't remember was that um 16 1 million six the increase or was that the old number and it no longer reflects what that building is going to cost uh very good question commissioner donaldson i'm told there's 1.6 million i'm told that's the number that's well that's the number that's in our budget okay uh and that's a number that's budgeted for 2022. what kind of what would be going into that uh the trailhead building do you i know that there's a few different options as far as like uh storage for trail maintenance equipment and stuff like that with the the county or sharing it yeah and we also talked about it being a park that is a meeting place for families to gather rentable space things like that i don't know that there will be any nature programming happening in that building right away but i think that's one of the things uh this commission brought forward when we did that uh was a couple years ago already when we had a work session on that uh that it sure would be nice to have kind of a place where we could do some nature programming to bring in uh folks to do that type of work but yeah it will be a a general public use space as well commissioner cleaver i'm going back to kelleher and the the new facility um i'm assuming that there might be some non-personal interpretive or educational kinds of materials in it or would that be done along the trail at you know some of the stopping points that seem natural out there sure uh very good question commissioner cleveland um again as this group talked about and some of you were not on the commission at a time at that time so i don't mean to tell all of you were there um but i think it was discussed that uh some of both like it would be nice to have uh some information available inside the building so that when those that were there would be able to see oh hey we should get out on the trail at least walk the trail a little bit maybe across the boardwalk and we can find these things along the way but certainly the interpretive signage that's even down at rudy kramer nature area is something that i know the city's received a lot of positive feedback on so adding that signage to the trail is something that we'll be looking into as well i don't know that'll be specifically part of this project but it'll be something that will be looked into sure thanks the house at elle magnet is that in poor condition yes it is it is um right now it is boarded up um all of the utilities have been uh turned off to that facility um i believe it was a last winter we did have uh some folks that were living in there that you shouldn't have been uh so there's been some challenges with that building um and the the public use of that building um we've had we had a group of arts folks that were using that building um when that was not that arts aren't very popular but it was before the aim center was built um after that we had the baseball association 191 called that home and they held their board meetings there and they uh stored a lot of their um their gambling um uh pull tabs that they needed uh to put it put in storage um they have found other alternatives since then for their where their meetings are held things like that the number of uses for that house have declined and it would be we would be better served trying to find a new use for that area in the park rather than having a boarded up house in that area not to mention we did have a water pipe break in that house a few years ago causing the basement to flood and and at that point that helped us make the decision to look at we repair replace or tear it down so is there a cost known to tear it down at this point i believe we had 150 000 in the budget for that project okay for the regional trail expansion improvements i see so we have a hundred thousand for this year but the next two years are looking at a million to spend towards i'm guessing is that hundred thousand going towards like the um the multimodal study that went or is there anything that's kind of is that process still continuing forward with that funding for this year mr mueller i will have to get back to you on that i do think a lot of money is going towards the study okay yeah i'll have to get back to you because like you just pointed out in the budgets in the future next coming years there's money that identifies projects to get to be completed but i will include that in next month's miscellaneous information no thank you commissioners tonight i am looking for a motion for our park staff to move forward with the projects that are listed unless you have any other concerns and i haven't heard any concerns unless you have any other questions that need attention iso move click it thank you all in favor say aye hi anybody opposed all right well it passes now we'll move on to miscellaneous is there anything else to be considered for tonight commissioners the only thing i have under miscellaneous items for tonight is that our next meeting will be on april 4th and i guess looking back at our topics i don't know that i have a hot topic or hot items planned for um for april uh just yet so please uh stay tuned and i'll try to get notification out as soon as i can if we are going to move forward with that date or not perfect well with that at this time i'd like to request a call for adjournment of the march 7th 2022 parks and natural resources commission meeting do we have a motion motion to adjourn to our journey we have a second second we have a second all unfair say aye aye anybody a post perfect with that have a great night everybody and we will see you next month perhaps you