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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1995-10-10 Park Board MinutesEDINA PARK BOARD 7:30 p.m. October 10, 1995 MEMBERS PRESENT: Becky Bennett, John Dovolis, Jim Fee, Beth Hall, Andrew Herring, Bill Jenkins, Jean Rydell MEMBERS ABSENT: Frank Bennett, Michael Burley, Dave Crowther, Andrew Montgomery STAFF PRESENT: John Keprios, Ed MacHolda, Janet Canton, Laura Lancrete OTHERS PRESENT: Lila Larson, Harold Larson, Marcie Padgett, Tim Walton I. APPROVAL OF THE SEPTEMBER 12, 1995 MINUTES John Dovolis MOVED TO APPROVE THE SEPTEMBER 12, 1995 MINUTES. Jim Fee SECONDED THE MOTION. MINUTES APPROVED. II. MRPA AWARD OF EXCELLENCE - ARLE LEISURE DISCOVERIES DAY Mr. Keprios introduced Marcie Padgett who serves on the Awards Committee for the Minnesota Recreation Parks Association. He noted that she will be presenting to Laura Lancrete, Adaptive Recreation Supervisor, an Award of Excellence for Leisure Discovery Days. Ms. Padgett explained that the purpose of the MRPA is to improve the quality of life by promoting the profession of parks and recreation and leader services within the state of Minnesota. The MRPA provides its members with continuing education opportunities to serve as an information resource on new trends in the field of parks and recreation and also provides recreational services. Ms. Padgett indicated that MRPA was founded in 1937 and they now have over 1,500 members throughout the state of Minnesota. She noted that the MRPA Awards Committee was established is 1987 and their purpose is to recognize and honor individuals and agencies for their excellent, outstanding or unique achievements in the field of park and recreation. She stated that the Award of Excellence is presented each year to those that are determined to have the best new program facility or volunteer efforts for that year. Nominations are then submitted to the committee around mid-April and are then rated by the community in six areas including: funding, planning, interagency cooperation, community support, originality and evaluation of the project. Ms. Padgett indicated that it is a pleasure to present an Award of Excellence in the area of programming to the City of Edina for Leisure Discovery Days. Congratulations! Mr. Keprios indicated that Ms. Lancrete is expecting her first child and has decided to not return to her position. Her last day will be December 29th and we are currently in the process of finding a replacement. Mr. Keprios stated Ms. Lancrete is a big reason we have been presented with this award. Everyone thanked Ms. Lancrete and noted that she will be missed. III. EDINA AQUATIC CENTER FILTER ROOM Mr. Keprios introduced Tom Schaffer and indicated that he will be informing the Park Board of his professional opinion on the current state of our equipment of the filtration room at the Aquatic Center. He noted that Mr. Schaffer is from U.S. Aquatics and will explain what we are faced with and why the Edina Park and Recreation staff is asking for the Park Board's blessing to spend some of the Developer's Fund money. Mr. Keprios stated that the Developer's Fund money would need to be used instead of taking a chance and waiting to see if a bond issue will pass in the spring. Mr. Schaffer drew a diagram explaining that the Edina's large pool body of water is higher than the filtration tank, which thus requires a special valve to maintain the proper level of water. He stated that almost all current municipal pool filtration systems are now designed with filtration tanks at the same water table as the main pool. However, the situation that we currently have is the filter is at a lower level than the pool. Therefore, the water wants to constantly seek its own level so it wants to flood the tank and the tank is where all of the filter elements are located. Mr. Schaffer explained they are relying on an old air pressure operated valve that needs to be replaced or have the system redesigned. Mr. Jenkins asked if that is normally how it's constructed these days and Mr. Schaffer replied in those days it was, however, these days it's not. Mr. Schaffer explained that the single biggest problem is that the valve does not work properly or reliably anymore. He stated that every time a bather goes into the pool water is displaced and we have to store that water somewhere and therefore it constantly wants to flood the tank. Mr. Schaffer pointed out that the valve is called a modulating valve which changes as the activity changes in the pool to regulate the water level. Mr. Schaffer explained this year the valve has failed and they have had to go to the pool several times a day to manually adjust it. This would happen because as people would go in the pool the filter wanted to overfill and go down the sewer and as people got out of the pool it went dry and the valve had to be opened to get more water. Mr. Jenkins asked why couldn't a new valve be put in. Mr. Schaffer stated that can be done, however, the valve costs approximately $12,000 plus it's run by a very sophisticated compressor system that's air actuated. The current compressor system is worn out and that will cost approximately $25,000. He noted that after this they take a pump and pump out of that filter water back to the pool and that's how the filtration cycle works. He indicated that the internal element to that filter is also worn out. What you do is this filter element is coated with Diatomaceous Earth and that gets plugged up with dirt and has to be cleaned and recoated. This is called waste media because the water goes through the filter media and flushed down the sewer during backwashing and they are worn out. 2 Mr. Schaffer explained that another issue is the Minnesota Department of Health is implementing a new code for the operation of swimming pools. The new code will take place January 3, 1996 and there is an 18 month to 2 year clause to get facilities up to the new code. He pointed out that the last time the code was changed was in 1973. The new code is going to impact this which raises another question. If the current equipment is fixed instead of purchasing new equipment, is the State Health Department going to come along in a year or two and say that we need to meet a new code and therefore need to redesign the facility? Ms. Bennett asked if the code is regarding the level of chemicals or what. Mr. Schaffer pointed out that it's pretty broad based but it affects turnover and that's the single biggest thing right now because we have to manually control it. The new code states that you have to take all of the water out of the pool and run it through the filter and back to the pool every six hours, four times a day. He stated that currently they run it through the filter once every 10 hours. The current filter is not big enough to handle it and the piping is not big enough to handle it within the mechanical room. All of this is going to need to eventually be changed. Mr. Jenkins asked Mr. Schaffer if he were to start from scratch with a brand new pool, spec wise how different would it be today and how would he do it. Mr. Schaffer responded that he would do two things. First, he would have the top of the filter level with the top of the pool and he would use a permanent media filter, a sand filter, rather than a waste media filter. He noted you buy a permanent media filter maybe once and you don't have to replace it every time. He indicated that he was down to backwash once a day and towards the end of the season two bags of DE were used every day to backwash the filter. Mr. Jenkins asked if there is still a valve in the same system in the new equipment. Mr. Schaffer indicated no, the system has a manual valve and we no longer need to modulate this because nature is doing it for US. Mr. Fee asked if the $40,000 is what it costs to fix the existing valve and it was noted that is correct. Mr. Schaffer explained that the filtration has another element called sanitation which has three basic elements: filtration, recirculation and sanitation that make up the whole system. Currently gas chlorine and caustic soda are sanitizing the pool which is highly acidic and has a PH less than one. Mr. Schaffer pointed out that the caustic soda sits in the equipment room within 4 feet of the heater. Therefore, when the heater fires up it sucks whatever vapors it can in the air including the caustic soda vapors which is eating out the inside of that heater area in about 3 to 4 years. Mr. Schaffer indicated that is the other part of the money that we are talking about is to get the caustic soda into a separate room so that it does not influence the equipment in the mechanical room. Mr. Jenkins asked how much was put in the pool four years ago and it was noted $625,000 for the total renovation. However, the filter room was not touched and the majority of the money went to the stainless steel 3 gutter. Mr. MacHolda stated that of the $200,000 being asked for, approximately $95,000 will be for the sand filtration. Mr. Schaffer noted that when the renovation was done 4 years ago the wading pool was put on it's own filtration equipment. However, we need to revamp this a little and have the wading pool's shallow water balance tank converted and replace some piping, which will cost approximately $10,000. He explained we are trying to address both systems and also added that the associated electrical work will be approximately $15,000 because the electrical wiring and components are no longer adequate. Last summer, the main circuit breaker melted on the weekend of the Aquatennial Swim Meet. Over the years, wires have become corroded from the caustic soda. Mr. Schaffer pointed out that to replace the pool heater for the one that's been corroded will cost approximately $17,000. He pointed out that the building should be retrofitted to clean up the mechanical room, install new doors and repaint for a cost of approximately $20,000. Mr. Schaffer explained that the sanitation system we have now was not replaced when we did the renovation and a lot of the equipment is 15 to 17 years old and is worn out. The equipment is at the end of it's life expectancy and a new sanitation system which is chlorine based will cost approximately $30,000. He stated that the last item is to move the caustic soda tank out onto the dock area into a separate enclosed building which will cost approximately $20,000. Therefore all of these items total up to $207,000. Mr. Keprios asked what the expected life of a new heater is that is not next to caustic soda. Mr. Schaffer indicated that most heaters have a life expectancy of 10 to 12 years compared to the four years that we are currently getting. Mr. Schaffer indicated that they have done a lot of band-aid approaches in the form of duck tape over the last four years. He stated that the filter elements are all warped and touching each other so there isn't filtration between them like there should be and we are constantly having to put spacers in, which has been a struggle. Mr. Keprios asked would it be safe to say that sand filtration is actually cheaper maintenance wise than a DE filtration system. Mr. Schaffer indicated that there is about a 5 to 7 year payback scenario in exchanging high rate permanent media filtration system. Mr. Schaffer brought up another issue that they are not going to be able to put DE down the sewer much longer. The EPA and DNR are stating that we have to catch the DE in a lined basket with nylon, dry it out and bring it to a hazardous waste disposal site. Mr. Fee asked what happens with the byproduct of the new filter. Mr. Schaffer explained that the new filter has sand and what they do is reverse the flow. It filters downward and what they do is reverse the flow and it comes up and the sand stays. The contaminant then comes off the top and goes into the sanitary sewer. He pointed out that right now 4 the waste is going to storm sewer, which will soon no longer be allowed by law. Mr. Schaffer stated that these are all things that are impacting the situation. Ms. Rydell stated that it looks like we really don't have any choice and Mr. Jenkins replied that everything looks good to him. Mr. Fee asked if the City Council knows this issue is coming. Mr. Keprios indicated that he is not sure if they do. Mr. Jenkins asked if the City Council knows they want to tap into the Developer's Fund and Mr. Keprios indicated that he has mentioned it to Mr. Rosland. Mr. Dovolis asked what the process is for bidding on this project. Mr. Keprios indicated that anything over $15,000 has to go out for advertised closed sealed bids. Mr. Keprios pointed out that what we are hearing tonight is we cannot wait and hope for the bond issue to pass because the pool may not be operational in 1996 if it doesn't. In fact, even if we wait and assume that the bond issue passes, it would not leave us enough time to make the repairs in time to open the pool on Memorial Day Weekend. Mr. Fee asked what the annual revenue is from the pool and Mr. MacHolda indicated that for years it has been a revenue facility that has struggled to break even. However, last year we brought in $350,000 and after paying operating expenses, debt service, and depreciation we made $75,000. He noted that in the summer of 1994 we made $40,000 to $50,000. Mr. MacHolda pointed out that for years the season ticket sales were around 1,400. However, three years ago 1,700 tickets were sold, in 1994 2,300 were sold and last year over 2,700 were sold. He stated that he has season tickets from 25 different communities. Mr. Keprios indicated that staff is recommending that the Park Board make a recommendation to City Council to go forward with this plan and have the funding come out of the existing Developer's Fund. Mr. Fee made a motion to accept the staff's recommendation and that the City Council be made aware of the Aquatic Center's $75,000 profit. Mr. Keprios indicated that we will include a revenue statement in the packet. John Dovolis SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. Mr. Herring asked why the money would come out of the Developer's Fund and not the capital expenditures for 1996. Mr. Keprios replied that he was told there are no capital dollars available next year until we know the outcome of the bond issue. Mr. Herring asked what does that mean. Mr. Jenkins indicated that bond or no bond we will get capital money for next year and Mr. Keprios stated not necessarily. Mr. Herring noted that we spent $243,000 from capital expenditures this year. Mr. Keprios explained that he was told that we may not have a capital plan if the bond issue passes and one will not be authorized until we know the outcome of the bond and even then the amount is yet to be determined. Mr. Keprios stated that on one of the original packets sent to Park Board members, the $1.1 for the pool included renovation of the filter room as well as the bathhouse, painting the pool, vacuum cleaner and miscellaneous equipment. Mr. Jenkins stated he believes that this is a good use for that Developer's Fund. Mr. Jenkins stated that even if the 5 bond issue passes, he thinks that this project should be financed by the Developer's Fund. Mr. Keprios stated that the need for this repair is urgent. Mr. Herring noted that it essentially depletes the Developers Fund. This will bring the Developer's Fund down from $266,000 to $66,000. Mr. Dovolis indicated that maybe someone will come in with a lesser bid too. Mr. Herring expressed a concern that we not have any capital budget if the bond referendum is not passed and he would like to get some feedback from Mr. Rosland on this issue. Mr. Keprios indicated that it is his understanding that there would be some capital money if the bond issue did not pass. However, there may not be any capital funds available if the referendum did pass. Mr. Herring noted that he thought Mr. Keprios stated there is no capital money in the Park Board until we know the outcome of the bond referendum and his point is if the bond referendum does not pass then he wants to have a capital budget for 1996. Mr. Keprios noted that he thinks there would be but he doesn't know what that figure would be. Mr. Herring noted that proper planning would suggest that you have a contingency plan. Mr. Keprios stated that they haven't established that dollar figure yet. Mr. Herring asked if they are in the budget process right now and Mr. Keprios replied they are at the tail end of it. Ms. Hall asked where the money comes from for the capital plan. Mr. Keprios explained that we receive $100,000 for utility rental for the utilities that are on park land. In other words, the Utility Department pays the Park and Recreation Department $100,000 a year in rent for having lift stations and pump houses operate on park lands. Also, he believes that are some earnings on investments that aren't anticipated to be there in 1996 as they have been in the past. In addition, money is also typically taken out of the Developer's Fund to help fund the capital plan. IV. LEARN TO SWIM PROGRAM Mr. Keprios explained that he received a letter from Mary Beth Carpenter, Youth Development Supervisor, indicating that the Youth Development/Youth Services is proposing to offer swimming lessons for basically all ages during the summer months. It would be during the same time that the Park and Recreation Department offers their lessons at the Edina Aquatic Center. Mr. Keprios stated that he received this letter late and we have to react quickly because the Park and Recreation Activities Directory needs to be put together in its final form in the next couple of weeks. Therefore, we don't have the luxury of seeing what the people in the community would prefer. Mr. Keprios informed the Park Board that Mr. Herring is serving on the Youth Development Committee at the school and he set up a meeting with Mr. MacHolda and Julie Cardinal, Director of Youth Development Services. Mr. Herring noted that this issue predates him because he has only been to one Youth Development meeting. Mr. Herring explained that participant input to Youth Development and Youth Services, which oversees the program for youth swimming lessons during the fall, winter and spring at the two middle schools, decided they would like to 2 continue offering swim lessons during the summer. He noted that he thinks the participant input was received primarily in June when it's cold at the outdoor pool. Accordingly, the advisory council considered this and directed staff to go ahead and continue the program through the summer months. He noted that at that point he understands that Mr. Keprios requested a letter from Youth Development/Youth Services, to have in his file, that they were going to extend the summer swimming program. Mr. Herring pointed out that at this point there was some concern on Mr. Keprios part and he suggested we all get together and make sure everybody understands where the other is coming from. Therefore, he met with Ms. Cardinal and Mr. MacHolda to make sure he had all the facts. Mr. Herring summarized the meeting and noted that the facts are pretty straightforward. He explained that Youth Development/Youth Services is going to go ahead and offer a swim program during the summer at the indoor pools and they are okay if the City and Edina Swim Club want to continue to offer swim lessons at the outdoor pool. The feeling is that there are enough people who want swimming lessons in a controlled environment and that it's worth while to go ahead and provide that. Mr. Herring noted that it does, however, create an issue for the City at the pool because there is a lot of time and energy that goes into staffing the lessons. Last year the Learn to Swim program made $14,000. Mr. Herring noted that lessons are now going to be available at the Middle Schools and Mr. MacHolda asks himself why should he continue to offer the program. Mr. Herring indicated that Mr. MacHolda explained to him that if swimming lessons are not held in the pool it can be rented out, however, it would not necessarily make $14,000. However, from a management standpoint it would be much easier to rent by the hour to the Edina Swim Club, St. Louis Park Swim Club and others. Therefore, the issue is if the Youth Development/Youth Services are going to offer lessons do we also want to offer them at the outdoor pool. Mr. Herring also pointed out that he understands the Edina Swim Club offers lessons to children 3 to 6 years old as a fundraising mechanism and therefore there will be some competition with the outdoor pool versus the indoor pool. Mr. Herring added that he understands there have been meetings with Ms. Cardinal and Mr. Walton, Edina Swim Club Head Coach. Also, Ms. Cardinal has tried to be very open about this and she wants to be receptive. Mr. Herring noted that Ms. Cardinal has also indicated that if there is an opportunity to partner on this or if this creates a problem she would be happy to continue to discuss it. Mr. Dovolis asked Mr. Herring what his gut feeling or recommendation is on this issue. Mr. Herring noted that his gut reaction to this is that there is an issue from the City's standpoint as to whether or not, given the indoor lessons, we want to go through the hassle, time and energy required to continue the outdoor lessons. Mr. Herring pointed out that the lessons are comparable, they are both Red Cross certified with water safety instructors and there is not a drop off in quality. Ms. Cardinal's view is that there are some kids who want to be at the outdoor pool, they want to take the last lesson of the day and stay for open swim, which is not an option at the indoor pool. Mr. Herring noted 7 that he doesn't have a sense of what the impact would be on the Edina Swim Club. Mr. Keprios clarified that it is the Park and Recreation's mission to do whatever best serves the community. Whether it is a hassle to provide staff is not really the issue. Mr. MacHolda added that staff is happy to do whatever it is that best serves the community. Mr. Herring noted that Ms. Cardinal feels the same way as well. Mr. Keprios pointed out that we don't have an issue with bringing more or less work onto ourselves, that's not an issue. Mr. Herring stated that he doesn't view it that way because there are limited resources as far as staff because if staff time can be freed up to work on other matters we need to prioritize those things. Mr. Keprios indicated that staff is willing to do whatever the Park Board feels we should do to best serve the community. Ms. Bennett asked Mr. MacHolda if the classes filled up this summer. Mr. MacHolda explained that the lower levels, 1, 2, 3, typically fill. However, as you move further up through the Red Cross system they are tougher and tougher to fill. Last year there were 780 participants. First session had 283, second session had 302 and third session had 185. Mr. MacHolda indicated that there were some vacancies. Mr. MacHolda stated that he does have income and expense reports from 1992 through 1995. He also stated that Mr. Herring is absolutely right that in 1995 the aquatic center did very well and generated about $14,000 through the Learn to Swim Program. However, that's not the norm. The norm for many, many years was a fixed figure. The amount designated for pool rent (Learn to Swim Program) was $5,000. What used to happen was all Learn to Swim registration fees were deposited into the general fund. The expenses then (salaries, bus rental and pool rental) were withdrawn from that general fund. Mr. MacHolda stated that a couple of years ago he had made the recommendation to the Finance Director as well as the City Manger to let him manage it. He felt the Aquatic Center could do better than $5,000. The plan was to deposit the Learn to Swim registration fees into the Edina Aquatic Center, charge the expenses against the facility and any money left over would be considered pool rent. Last year was the first year the Learn to Swim income and expenses showed up against the facility. With a net income of $3,400 the pool for all intensive purposes lost $1,600 in pool rent from previous years. However, in 1994 we still had a $7,000 bus rental charge and very few riders. By eliminating the bus service we could add a fourth time period (more revenue) and delete our second largest expense. The result was a net income of $14,000 in 1995. Mr. Jenkins pointed out that for years we had a $7,000 bus expense that we don't have anymore, which is a big number. Mr. MacHolda noted that he hasn't had any complaints, not one call that the bus service was discontinued. Mr. Keprios noted he received one. Mr. Jenkins asked Mr. MacHolda what his recommendation would be. Mr. MacHolda stated that he wants what is best for the community. He noted that he does not disagree with Youth Development in saying that a 0 controlled environment may be a better environment. He noted that then you don't have to worry about rain and 60 degrees. However, if we discontinue the service right now and Youth Development runs the program we are not giving the community a chance to state where they would like to go. He pointed out although that looking at this long-term it doesn't make any sense for him to duplicate the program. Mr. MacHolda stated that Park and Recreation has been very careful not to duplicate. We've always been very conscientious about each others programs. Mr. Jenkins asked why the program should even be duplicated once. Mr. MacHolda indicated that the residents need the opportunity to express which way they would like to see the program go. Mr. Keprios stated that Tim Walton from the Edina Swim Club would also like to speak on this topic. Mr. Walton stated that he is the head swim coach for the Edina Swim Club and has been with the Swim Club for 11 years. He noted that there are over 250 participants in the program and 98% of them are from Edina. He explained they service complete novice swimmers all the way up to Junior National swimmers and that they are the main resource for the Edina High School swim program. Mr. Walton pointed out that they have typically run swimming lessons in the summer for years and have typically made between $2,000 and $3,000 which is not a lot of money for the amount of effort that is put into it. Mr. Walton indicated that they offer swimming lessons for two reasons. One is they want to get kids involved so that eventually down the line they will become members of the program. However, he noted that his biggest concern is that we don't stand on each others feet because there are a lot of children who need to be taught. Mr. Walton explained that Youth Development's program want to swim indoors and use the same times that the Swim Club currently uses which means the Swim Club won't have a place to swim at that time. He noted that they are looking at possibly going to Edinborough Park, however the cost would be tripled and the money that is made would all go to rental. Mr. Walton pointed out that in his opinion Community Education has expanded their programming in a lot of areas and in doing so have displaced the Edina Swim Club many times. Mr. Walton noted that the Swim Club is being pinched and squeezed and he wanted to speak to protect his own interest for one and also to make the Park Board realize that the Edina Swim Club is a valuable program. Ms. Bennett asked if most of the lifeguards who are hired to work at the pool are participants of the Edina Swim Club. Mr. Walton responded that the Swim Club is a resource for most of the lifeguards. Mr. Walton pointed out that he just received a call from Community Education indicating that they want the Swim Club out of Valley View starting January 1st and that he needs to put all of his programs into South View in three hours. He explained he now has 125 kids to get through in three hours in one pool because Community Education wants to start up another water aerobics class that fills 10 people in an hour. Ms. Bennett pointed that she knows the Swim Club currently uses the pools at Edinborough, Blake, South View and Valley View. They are E spread out all over at approximately the same time. Mr. Walton stated that they are really restricted and growing. He indicated that this year at Splash Night for the Edina Swim there were more kids that wanted to join then they had space for and therefore had to turn 20 kids away from their Learn to Swim program. Mr. Keprios noted that the Swim Club teaches lessons during the summer months for primarily the preschool age kids and what is happening is that Community Education is now going to be competing for that same age group. Mr. Walton stated that his point is lets not step on each others toes, you promote our program and we'll promote yours. Mr. MacHolda noted that there is so much that is unwritten but they have always tried to honor a season and an age group and not duplicate or step on anyones toes. He noted that the Swim Club makes $2,000 on their swimming lessons, which is not a lot of money but it is a source of revenue for them. Mr. MacHolda indicated that his thought is if we don't duplicate the swimming lessons then the pool can be rented. He noted that he would first ask the Swim Club because they would probably like a better time such as 9:00 a.m. to noon and then rent to someone else from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Mr. Jenkins asked who ran the program before Youth Development took it over. Mr. Herring explained there was a program called Community Enrichment and they divided that in half, one for youth activities and one for adult activities. Now there is Adult Enrichment and Youth Development and Youth Services. Mr. Jenkins asked if there was a swimming program through Community Education before and it was noted yes, but not in the summer. Ms. Rydell asked who uses the pool at Edinborough. It was noted that the Swim Club is scheduled to use it Monday through Friday from 3:00 to 5:00. Lap swim follows that and then open swim. Ms. Rydell asked how utilized is it and Mr. Walton noted it is very underutilized. Ms. Rydell suggested they put the water aerobics class there. Mr. Walton noted it would make sense for them to do that, however, they want to be in their own pool. Mr. Dovolis stated that it makes sense not to step on each others toes. He pointed out that it makes sense to him to somehow coordinate the use of the pools so that kids are not being turned away. Ms. Rydell asked if Steve Dove has control over the pool and Mr. Keprios replied that in the chain of command, it is ultimately the Edina School Board's decision. Mr. Keprios noted that he has one comment and in no way is it a reflection on Mr. Herring because he has only been to one meeting. However, there has always been an unwritten rule that we don't compete with the School District on certain programs. He explained that he doesn't feel threatened by what they are doing but if down the road they are going to do something that is going to impact the community as greatly as this he would like them to take the time to plan to talk over 10 the whole issue rather than just say we are going to do it and we don't care what you are going to do. Mr. Herring stated that there have been meetings with Mr. MacHolda and Mr. Walton. Mr. Herring stated that the feedback he is getting is that Youth Development and Youth Services is open to discussing what is in the best interest of the community and how to partner on this and how to work together on it. However, the feedback they are getting is that the participants want a controlled environment. Mr. Walton indicated that the meeting Mr. Herring is referring to was very frustrating because Youth Development/Services told them they were starting a swimming program next summer and chances are that the Swim Club will not be able to use their pool. Mr. Walton pointed out there was no discussion, come January 1st they will be expanding their program. Mr. Jenkins noted that it sounds like there needs to be a little more communication between the two bodies. Mr. Keprios stated that staff's recommendation would be that we continue to offer the lessons for the same age group and evaluate the results at the end of the season. He noted there are a couple of reasons why he thinks this should be done. First of all, he thinks Mr. MacHolda is right in that we haven't had the opportunity to canvas all of our customers. Mr. Keprios pointed out that Youth Development/Services indicated that people want a controlled environment and therefore it does make some sense, however, if you look at our surveys, 81% think that the water at the outdoor pool is one of the warmest pools in the Twin Cities area. However, when weather is threatening for us it is a draw -back. Mr. Herring suggested to Mr. Keprios that he meet with Doug Johnson from the School District and Mr. Keprios noted he would be happy to meet with him. Mr. Walton stated that it would really be nice to have another party at the meetings because they are saying this is the way it is and this is the way it's going to be. Ms. Bennett brought up the point that she doesn't think there is any other program where they have had to turn people away and that's not a good policy and it does need to be looked at. Mr. Fee pointed out that the survey had a great response. Mr. Keprios stated that Mr. MacHolda does a very good job of finding out the customers' satisfaction. V. 1995-1996 OUTDOOR SKATING RINKS PROPOSAL Mr. Keprios stated that staff's recommendation is to add Strachauer skating rink this year and leave the rest the same. Jean Rydell MOVED TO ADD STRACHAUER SKATING RINK THIS YEAR AND LEAVE THE REST THE SAME. John Dovolis SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION CARRIED. Mr. Fee asked if there could be some publicity in the Edina Sun for this and Mr. Keprios noted he would be happy to put it in the Sun Current. 11 VI. PARK IMPROVEMENT PLAN UPDATE Mr. Keprios indicated that the Mayor was not at the last City Council meeting and therefore they did not yet adopt a referendum team. However, they like the Park Board's recommended process and it is clear to him that there is a lot of support from the Mayor and City Council. He also noted that Mayor Richards has volunteered to chair the committee. He stated that Mr. Jenkins is on the committee and there are approximately 30 names on the list for the City Council to choose from to appoint. It was noted that Bob Christianson and Bob Kojetin should be on that list to be considered. Mr. Keprios pointed out that for the people who do not get appointed to the referendum team, the Citizen's Committee is another committee needing people. He noted that Ms. Hall has been kind enough to orchestrate and get that committee moving. Mr. Keprios noted that he was asked at the last Park Board meeting to come up with a list of priorities and has therefore come up with his first draft. He stated that the first thing he feels needs to be done is to repair or replace broken or worn infrastructure. After that, all of the other issues kick in such as maintenance issues, safety issues, and aesthetic issues. The message to the community is that we will repair or replace what is broken before we build anything new. Mr. Keprios stated that next in line would be taking care of maintenance and environmentally friendly needs such as the irrigation, which is a vital part of the Turf Management Program. Also, putting concrete under bleachers, benches and fencing to eliminate a lot of the necessity to trim weeds and grass in those high maintenance areas. Also, landscaping, grading, curbing and putting asphalt on the hockey rinks and parking lots are also maintenance friendly issues which also serve as environmental issues as well. Mr. Keprios stated that the last referendum projects to be financed will be to build new and improved amenities such as pathways, park shelter buildings, picnic shelters, lighting and park benches. He also noted something that may be higher on some people's priority list is multi- purpose shelter buildings. Mr. Keprios explained that what he hopes to do with this list is when he gets more time is to list out absolutely everything that falls under each and every category. He noted right now it is just a start. VII. OTHER A. Flag Football Program - Mr. Herring noted that he has heard some complaints about the boys Flag Football program. One weekend there were no flags and the high school kids aren't showing up anymore. Mr. Keprios noted that the Football Association administers that program. Mr. MacHolda and Mr. Jenkins stated that they haven't heard anything about it. Mr. Herring stated that his son who is in the 5th grade really has got their act together this year and are doing a very nice job. It was noted that Jay Diley, President of the Edina Football Association, is doing a good job. Mr. Keprios explained that's 12 administered by the Football Association and he would hope that the facilities are prepared and ready and the lights on and all that. He indicated that staff will pass this concern on to the Football Board. VIII. ADJOURNMENT John Dovolis MOVED TO ADJOURN THE MEETING AT 8:55 P.M. Jim Fee SECONDED THE MOTION. MEETING ADJOURNED. 13