Parks & Recreation Commission (Meets as needed/quarterly on 4th Thursday of each month at 5:00 p.m.)

PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION May 27, 2021 Virtual Meeting via Zoom Members Present In Person: Keith Kern, Gene Rosburg, Nick Ledin Members Present Virtually: Elizabeth Norén, Jemal Broussard Members Not Present: Brittany Berrens-Markgren Also Present: Linda Cadotte (Director of Parks, Recreation & Forestry), Russ Behlings (Parks Superintendent), Jodi Saylor (Administrative Assistant, Parks, Recreation & Forestry, Shelley Nelson (Superior Telegram), Larry Ricker, Jenny Van Sickle (City Council), Jennifer Josephs (EPA), Ruth Ludwig (City Council), Katie Williams (EPA), Molly Wick (EPA), Sebastian P (EPA), Kalee Hermanson, Jules Witts (EPA) (*attended virtually) Councilor Kern called the meeting to order at 5:07 p.m. A quorum was not present so any information provided will be re-presented before taking final action. 1. Approve the minutes from January 28, 2021 Hold until next meeting., 2. Elect Officers a. Chair b. Vice-Chair No quorum, no vote 3. USEPA Research at Pickle Pond Presentation The USEPA Office of Research and Development presented on a project they are working on at Pickle Pond. They will be measuring doing research at the pond including biological research, human use of the pond, what it looks like and surveys. They are looking at Remediation to Restoration to Revitalization (R2R2R). They are using social science research to maximize the positive societal outcomes as well as the environmental outcomes. Their study objectives are to study the R2R2R in a particular site, this one being Pickle Pond. A goal is to find out how clean-up and restoration benefit the community. They are trying to find out how the ecology research and social research are tied together. Right now, they are currently in end stages of the design. Their plan is to collect “before” data in 2021, “during data in 2022, and “after” data for at least 1 year after, possibly longer depending on the status. 1 Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting May 27, 2021  Jennifer Josephs, Katie Williams, Molly Wick, Julie Witts, and Sebastian P. left the meeting at 5:27pm. 4. Larry Ricker 50th Street Park Concept Presentation Larry Ricker gave a presentation on a new park that he would like to see built on 50th Street. The neighborhood it would serve is geographically locked away from other parks, according to Ricker. He believes the location would serve a population that has harder access to neighboring parks. He has gathered signatures from locals as well as people that live out of Superior but within Douglas County. In speaking with Keith Allen from Douglas County, he said the County would consider donating this piece of land to the City for the new park. There is another small piece of land that they would like to use and Ricker is currently talking to the owner and preparing to do an appraisal to see what it would take to obtain that property for the park. He presented ideas on playground equipment, a pavilion with a stage and eventually a building for a Boys and Girls Club. Councilor Kern talked about the Outdoor Comprehensive Recreation Plan that is the current plans for all City Parks. That will be the focus of the City and so any funding by the City would likely have to wait until a new plan is put in place. Director Cadotte offered some alternative ideas such as raising money to renovate the playground already owned by Lakeside Terrace. Ricker will continue to work on the details of his plan and update the Commission as he makes progress. No action taken at this time. Will be brought back to a future meeting. 5. Webster Park Sensory Garden Update and Approval (no action due to no quorum) This is the final phase of the Webster Dream Park Renovation. It has been in the plan since day one as long as enough funding came in. They were able to raise more than enough to complete this component. The intent is to have a place for kids or adults to go when facing sensory overload while visiting the park. It will be a great addition for all abilities to immerse themselves in the garden. The City has been given $15K to pay for the expenses needed for the garden. There has been a wide variety of skills on the planning committee to create this design. LHB did the concept sketch. The garden will include an area for learning with trees, flowers, and shrubs to invoke all of the senses - touch, hear, feel and smell and some a combination of senses. Kalee is working on signage that will tell people how to enjoy the garden. There will be a quiet garden at the back for those that just need a quiet space. She has also purchased 4 metal musical flowers that people can make music with. The Parks Crew plans to get started on the garden this summer. The City’s Volunteer Coordinator will work with Kalee to get volunteers to help with the process. The current garden plants will be recycled into gardens around the City, but will not be torn down until the new garden is complete. Kalee Hermanson and Shelley Nelson left at 6:01pm 2 Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting May 27, 2021 6. Superintendent’s Report a. The summer season has been kicked off and the Parks Crew is filled for the year, they have started on gardens, mowing, and have planted 200 boulevard trees with 200 more to go, they are currently finishing up the Brush Pickup b. They have a new mini excavator and are putting that to use on Barkers Island Garden and will be using it on the extension for the Makwa Ziibiins Miikana - Bear Creek Trail as well. The floating boardwalk pieces are due to arrive for that this week. c. The Bear Creek Park bathroom was reset and is now open and functioning. d. Keeping up with the docks, which have been very busy this year. They will be adding 2 railing back to the 21st Street Launch on the culvert side to help people get in and out of boats. e. Some updates were done to the platform fishing pier at Barker’s Island below the Bong Center. It was damaged due to storms a couple of years ago. They took the good half, modified it and took the other half and added bump outs for fishing. f. Billings Park Pavilion 1 got a new roof g. Girl Scout Point now has a platform that can be added to the fire pit to cover it h. The Disc Golf course has been very busy. The trail counters hit 289 in a week with an average of 200 users per week. i. Bear Creek Trail is averaging 150/week, the Millennium Trail averages about 750/week, Osaugie is about 100/week and the Red Ski Trail at peak ski season is about 200 skiers. 7. Director’s Report a. 42nd Street there was a Council action in 2010 to close this through the spring cleanup (June 1). One of our most used assets is the disc golf course. It was originally closed to prevent dumping, but we are now preventing the dumping by having users groups be there. The original motion allowed for the Director of Parks, Recreation and Forestry to open that section and so it was opened up about a week ago. The goal is to open it when we can in the spring versus a set date to give access to the Disc Golf Course. It will require more grading and work by Public Works, but it is warranted due to the amount of use of the golf course. Will still keep Billings Park Drive closed until June 1, and we may want to look at that down the road as well. b. We have hired Denise McDonald as the Summer Volunteer & Events Coordinator. We are a little behind on cleanups due to staffing, but we are working diligently to catch up. c. Bayside Sounds Concert Schedule – We are partnering with UWS for a fall bonus concert. Superior Refinery also gave some more funding so we will be hosting GB Leighton at UWS for that concert. A couple of new locations were added to the schedule this year - Kelly Park and Bear Creek. d. We did secure the Woodstock Bay grant. We are working on finalizing the bidding documents. The recommendation from the engineer firms is to hold off until later summer/fall for bids for construction next year. With crazy prices of lumber right now, we are more likely to have better outcome once prices taper 3 Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting May 27, 2021  down. In 2022 Woodstock Bay will be improved. That should expedite 28th Street being re-done as well. Working with PW to widen that road for the crossing. e. The life jacket station at Barker’s Island swimming beach has been installed and we are waiting on signage for that. There will also be one installed at the Barker’s Island boat launch. (That project has been pushed to next year, but we are still working on improving the fish stations and other things that we can do this year.) If a grant is secured in 2022, we would also like to add a life jacket station at Billings Park and replace any life jackets that are not returned this year. f. The Coast Guard will be painting life jacket zones at Loons Foot and Arrowhead landings. g. Our new reservation software is now up and running. We have been working through some minor issues but it seems to be moving along. Since we opened it up we have taken in over $5,000 in reservations for both pavilions and ball fields. The SYO coaches are happy and using the system to reserve fields for practice times. We will continue to work with Spotz to iron out issues as they arise. Overall, this will be a great time saver for office staff as there will not be as many phone calls back and forth as well as mailings back and forth. It allows staff to work on other items such as graphics for Facebook posts. 8. The next regular meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission will be July 22, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. Councilor Kern announced the meeting adjourned at 6:21 p.m. Minutes submitted to the Council Meeting of July 6, 2021. 4 Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting May 27, 2021