Coralville Civil Service

Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting Minutes for May 15, 2023 A regular meeting of the Coralville Parks and Recreation Commission was held on Monday, May 15, 2023 at 6:20 p.m. Commission members Tawil, Mount, Goulding, and Graham were present along with Council Member Jones and staff members Proud and Buhmeyer. No citizens were in attendance. A recent citizen inquiry was made in regards to a pond in the Forest Edge area. We’ve had a request from Forest Edge HOA to chemically treat the small pond on the outlet in between Forest Edge Drive and Muddy Creek Lane. This HOA approached the City about gifting this outlot in 2015 to the City so they no longer had to take care of it. Kevin Olson made it clear to them at the time that the lot would be under our care guidelines for mowing, etc. at the time of the gift. I explained to the HOA that we only manage bodies of water in two ways. We add grass carp which eat pond plants and algae or we add a vegetable dye product that dyes the water dark which slows light from reaching the bottom. Parks Staff will take a look at the body of water and make a recommendation for which would be best to try. I’ve informed the HOA that we won’t chemically treat the water. A tour was taken to show various bodies of water that staff are working on enhancing and signing for use as recreational bodies of water. Three lakes/ponds in Coralville have been designated as recreational bodies of water for small, non-motorized water craft which are Youth Sports Park, MA Ewalt, and Dovetail Recreation Area. These larger bodies of water do not have fountains in them and are large enough to accommodate small water craft. Swimming is not allowed in any pond or lake in Coralville. The Commission visited: MA Ewalt This water body has the closest parking lot with accessible parking so it makes the most sense to provide an accessible dock and accessible path over from the parking lot. A planned future amenity at MA Ewalt is to complete the trail all the way around the pond. It currently is only completed on the west side but graded around the pond. It will take a small bridge on the north side to complete the connection. Parks and Streets staff have recently worked to have the samplings and cattails removed from the edge of the dam as they’d gotten to thick and the IDNR asked for them to be removed. Clear Creek Water Trail Access Point #1 This area is just north of Coralville Creekside Sports Park. Staff are working to create a defined parking area about 40 yards south of the input point and to install a trash can and usage signage. This will be the west most access point for kayaks and inner tubes on Clear Creek. The access point was created by the Iowa Department of Transportation as part of their work on the creek as a stream mitigation for impacts with the I80/I380 interchange work. Clear Creek Water Trail Access Point #2 This area is east of Deer Creek Road about a quarter mile south of Hwy 6. This as also created by the IDOT with the same stream mitigation project. This spring, staff laid out a grass path through this tree mitigation space and created a path from the Clear Creek Trail, past the kayak access point, and over to Altmaier Family Park. Shawn DeGood spear headed the effort to build a small foot bridge to cross Deer Creek to reach the park. Staff will work on keeping designating a mowed parking area, fill in current ruts to create a smoother approach, and to install trash can and usage signage. The Clear Creek Stream Mitigation will help to clean up snags and downed trees in Clear Creek as the different phases are completed. Currently, there are a few sand bars that are fairly easy to portage over and one huge tree that you have to portage around but a beaten path has started to establish. When the creek is running about 120 cubic feet per second, it’s about a two hour float to Tom Harkin Trailhead from Access Point #1. Dovetail Recreation Area Staff have established mowed paths as fishing access points on the east, west, and south sides of the lake to better access good fishing points and avoid poison ivy. For some reason, poison ivy is very prevalent around this lake and is something staff is working to control. Staff has established a entry point on the southeast corner which acts as nearly a zero depth walk in point to put in a kayak or canoe. Parking is provided across Oakdale Boulevard at the south end of the park which also has trash receptacle and portajohn. Signs have been ordered for this water body. Future discussion will include ideas for how we can encourage use of the water bodies with something like a traveling trailer of kayaks to different locations throughout the summer. Minutes were reviewed from the April 17 meeting. Mount recommended approval with Goulding second. Jones gave an update on 150th activities for the City of Coralville. Proud mentioned that several staff, including herself, are taking chair roles with the Coralville RAGBRAI plans. Commission member Graham is also co-chairing the Beverage Garden committee. Council member Goulding commented on how nice it is to have great trails in Coralville with easy access from the neighborhoods. Meeting adjourned at 8:20 p.m.