Park & Recreation Advisory Board

Public Services – Parks & Recreation REGULAR MEETING MINUTES OF THE ANOKA PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2024 COUNCIL WORK SESSION ROOM OF ANOKA CITY HALL 2015 FIRST AVENUE, ANOKA MN MEMBERS PRESENT: Steve Nelson, Derek Sebesta, Mark Beckenbach, Bob Erickson, Don Rowell, Kirk Schnitker, Anna Hauglie, Joe Anderla and Mary Blankenship STAFF PRESENT: Lisa LaCasse, Public Services Administrator and Jon Holmes, Public Services Supervisor APPROVE MINUTES There being no additions or corrections to the February meeting minutes, a motion was made by Schnitker, seconded by Erickson to APPROVE THE FEBRUARY 27, 2024 REGULAR MEETING MINUTES OF THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD. 9 AYES – 0 OPPOSED. Motion carried. OPEN FORUM None. NEW BUSINESS Park Capital and Park Dedication Fund Audit The board was given two handouts at the beginning of the meeting. LaCasse explained that as requested, she completed an audit of the Park Capital and Park Dedication fund back to 2012. Earlier than 2012, the city did not use the same accounting software and projects were not tracked the same. One document included the park dedication fund contributions, expenditures, and potential revenues from pending development. LaCasse noted that the last large contribution was from 2022. There were no contributions from major development in 2023 and none expected in 2024. Since 2012, we have completed $786,000 worth of park dedication projects and have received $810,760. If we completed all the projects for 2024 we will have a minimal balance left in park dedication. LaCasse has asked Benda Springer, Finance Director to review the expenditures in the Park Capital account for accuracy. LaCasse shared a handout that was recently presented to council that showed the distribution of liquor store revenues and the individual capital fund contributions over the last 20 years. In 2023, Park Capital received $40,000 and in 2022, it was only $20,000. No transfer was received in 2024 due to the closing of the West store. Nelson Regular Meeting of the City of Anoka Parks and Recreation Advisory Board March 19, 2024 Page 2 asked if staff knows the average park capital contributions from the general fund each year, LaCasse said no, the amount varies; in the past if Council approved the projects the funds were made available (transferred in). Nelson asked about the possible liquor store development on 7th Ave and Main St and if they tried to get into the old CVS building to save money. LaCasse said community development was in contact with the owners of the CVS building as soon as they heard CVS was leaving, CVS was not interested in selling; they wanted a long term lease. The City was not interested in paying rent. It is projected that building a liquor store in that location will bring in 3 times as much revenue as when both liquor stores were open. LaCasse handed out the planning document that she uses for planning park capital projects and annual budget requests. She asked the board members to review this document prior to next meeting. The board will need to start prioritizing the capital projects for 2025 and looking beyond. The 2025 budget, is somewhat set, depending on the funding the Council makes available. For 2025, we are committed to the match amount of $140,000 for the 4 th Ave Railroad Crossing project for the Rum River Trail. Schnitker brought up the point he made at the last meeting about getting a smaller committee together to go over this stuff and then set up a meeting with Council about funding shortfalls and come up with sustainable ideas for funding sources. Anoka isn’t completely built out yet and there are still park dedication funds hopefully coming in the future. LaCasse said there are also discussions to be had about the small parks that are in little niche areas of neighborhoods. The big question is should the city be re-investing the small parks as they are or reimagining there use. Many communities are creating destination parks – but those are citys with lots of room to grow. Council starts their capital budget discussions in May. Nelson asked if LaCasse knows which parks should be phased out. LaCasse said she is not necessarily recommending we phase out parks or give up properties, but the cost to replace playgrounds and amenities is growing – it could cost as much as $100,000 or more for a playground, fall surfacing and ADA improvements like sidewalk connections or poured in place surfaces. That does not include bathrooms. Blankenship and Anderla suggested a worksession with Council, if they want Anoka to be a destination city with good parks and attractions then they need to start focusing on them. Rowell stated that people don’t come to Anoka for the downtown, and the river, not the parks. Schnitker stated that people move to cities for nice parks and neighborhood amenities. Blankenship said that if parks look kept up, neat and maintained it draws people to neighborhoods and probably lessens the vandalism. Anderla asked if the Sunny Acres pavilion is going to be available, because for the past few years it hasn’t been. LaCasse said the pavilion is available, we had used it for over winter storage when the Turf Maintenance building was built. Anderla asked if staff has talked to other cities about vandalism issues to see if they are dealing with the same things; staff indicated that all the other cities around us are dealing with the same vandalism issues so it’s not just an issue for Anoka. Regular Meeting of the City of Anoka Parks and Recreation Advisory Board March 19, 2024 Page 3 A motion was made by Schnitker, seconded by Anderla to SET UP A SMALL COMMITTEE OF 3-4 PEOPLE TO COME UP WITH IDEAS TO SET UP A MEETING WITH COUNCIL TO DISCUSS THE BUDGET AND THE POTENTIAL TO CREATE A FUNDING SOURCE FOR PARKS AND RECREATION. AYES – 9, NAYS – 1. Motion carried. Schnitker, Nelson and Anderla agreed to be part of the committee, the three board members discussed and set a time to meet with LaCasse. April 1st, 2024 at 2pm. Meeting Time Discussion This topic has been brought up a few times over the years and never worked for everyone to attend an earlier meeting time so LaCasse is bringing this forward again as there have been new board members and changes with existing members. The time of the meeting could be changed to 5:00pm, 5:30pm, 6:00pm or we could just keep it at 7:00pm. Rowell, Nelson and Erickson are open to whatever, Blankenship would love to change to an earlier time. Sebesta said it would be harder to make an earlier meeting because he works until 5pm in Delano, but he could probably make it work once a month. A motion was made by Rowell, seconded by Blankenship to MOVE THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD MEETING TO 5:30PM IN MAY, JUNE AND JULY AS A TRIAL. 9 – AYES, 0 – NAYS. Motion carried. Spring Sport Field Use 2024 Included in the packet is a snapshot of spring field usage. John Ward will be used by the ARAA baseball program from 8u – 12u teams. There is a new athletic organization, named Paladin Sports, that is offering community sports instructional programs on Saturday morning for small children. They have requested to use John Ward Park as well. All other usage is typical. PACT school is using Enloe for baseball and softball. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Castle Field Donation/Scoreboard Signage Mauer Main offered a donation of $10,000 for their name to be included above the scoreboard. Staff mocked up an image several years ago demonstrating what sponsorship logos could look like around the scoreboard. LaCasse asked CFA to discuss the offer and report back. Nelson said they felt that the graphic was pretty huge and loud. The CFA board thought that Jim Lundeen should have first crack at having Killebrew on sign. Sterling Trophy is also interested. One of the CFA members is mocking up some options. LaCasse explained that the scoreboard was made to have signage. There are lots of options. Mauer has their name at Goodrich field and inside the high school – they paid $10,000 total. Erickson said there are some industry standard formulas to charge for ad space based on how many people visit the facility a year. He shared what the Ice Arena receives for 3 years on the ice resurfacer, scoreboard, and boards. The company is also required to pay for the graphics. Regular Meeting of the City of Anoka Parks and Recreation Advisory Board March 19, 2024 Page 4 Nelson asked if they are looking for a timeline on when this could be done. LaCasse said it was brought to her attention that they may be willing to donate, nothing was definite. The topic has been tabled for more discussion later. Project Updates • West Rum River Trail Phase 1 – The construction contract has been awarded to Sunram Construction. (Sunram has completed several projects in the City.) Construction cannot start until all of the permits are received and submitted to the DNR. The DNR will then issue a finalized contract. Initially, we anticipated timing constraints for tree removal due to the presence of the Northern Long Eared Bats but that has since been determined to be a non-issues. The contractor has special rules to follow due to Blanding turtles. Hopefully, we will have an authorization to proceed by May 1. We are waiting on MNDot for a right of way permit and a permit from the Lower Rum River Watershed Management Organization. • Riverfront Park Veterans Stage Roof – A photo was shared of the in progress stage roof. LaCasse explained that we may have the option to add more sunscreens if we decide we need more shade in the back. Concrete will be poured to fill in the grass between the concrete slabs to make the whole stage platform level. The grass, while good for skate board deterrence was a terrible trip hazard. COMMUNICATIONS In the packet are a couple of communication pieces from Anoka Conservation District about the work they are doing at Kings Island and the Anoka Nature Preserve. They have also been doing buckthorn cutting at Kings Island. ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING 2025 CIP Budget Discussion Adjournment There being no further discussion, a motion was made by Erickson, seconded by Rowell, to ADJOURN THE REGULAR MEETING. 9 – AYES, 0 – OPPOSED. Motion carried. Time of adjournment 8:27 pm Respectfully Submitted, Lisa LaCasse, Public Services Administrator