HomeMy WebLinkAbout1985-09-10 Park Board MinutesEDINA PARK BOARD
Edina City Hall
September 10, 1985
8:00 P.M.
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Joan Lonsbury, George Warner, Bob Christianson, James Fee, Bill
Lord, Andrew Montgomery, Jean Rydell, Virginia Shaw, Mack Thayer,
Don Wineberg, Marilyn Wooldridge
STAFF PRESENT:
Bob Kojetin, John Keprios, Ed MacHolda, Madelyn Krinke, Pat
Greer, Marion Ward, Richard "Andy" Anderson
OTHERS PRESENT:
Bill Greer, Al Ward, Donna Hipps
Dedication of Van Valkenburg Park preceded the Park Board Meeting at 7:00 p.m.
I. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF AUGUST 13, 1985 MEETING
Don Wineberg moved for approval of the minutes of the August 13, 1985
meeting, with correction of date on minutes from 12th to 13th on page 1 and
with the correction of last page to read "Residents in attendance at Park
Board Meeting August 13, 1985." Bob Christianson seconded the motion.
Motion carried.
II. ART CENTER REPORT
Bob Kojetin introduced Pat Greer and Marion Ward, co -directors of the Art
Center. Bob expressed his appreciation for the excellent job they have
done at the Art Center in providing a very valuable service to the
community. Bob stated that about 40-50% of the youth in Edina are involved
in sports, and the need for something for the other 50% is met to a great
extent by the programs at the Art Center. Providing cultural activities
for the entire community is a very important service which is provided by
the Art Center.
Pat Greer presented several fact sheets showing membership receipts and
fees and charges. She stated that when the Art Center opened 8 years ago
there were 287 memberships and presently there are 366 memberships. There
was no restriction placed on non resident memberships, because in the
beginning there was a need to draw as many individuals as possible to build
the memberships, and as a result, the Art Center has been serving a lot of
other communities. The ratio of students has been two-thirds adults to
one-third students. Memberships and the Art Gallery have brought revenue
to the center. Shows have brought in $1300 in the past year.
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Pat further stated that the size of the various rooms at the Art Center
limits the number of possible students that can be in a class - in most
classes, that limit is 8. Only the Nichol's Studio can accommodate a
larger group of up to 15. The center is equipped for the handicapped. Pat
also stated that she feels the Art Center provides a very valuable service
to the community, but realizes there is a lack of funds to cover the
expenses. She referred to page 2 of her reports, concerning ideas to help
cut the deficit, outlining steps that have already been taken to reduce
costs and to increase profits. Pat showed in her analysis of costs and
income that in order for the Art Center to show a profit from class fees,
they would have to increase the charge for each class from the present $55
to $88 per session for each class, which would price them out of the
market. Therefore, other methods of funding must be looked at.
Marion Ward said that she is very pleased with how the Art Center has grown
in the past 8 years and feels very good about the services they provide.
Marion listed several promotional things which are done each year to
promote the Art Center, including showing a slide presentation many times
to service clubs, school classes, etc., art demonstrations at MN Zoo,
displays at several realty offices, Expo, Art Fair, Dayton's Art show, from
which they have received donations. Marion also mentioned some of the many
special events and programs which have been offered at the center.
Bob Kojetin stated that the Council would be meeting September 17, at 7:00
and the Park Board Finance Committee should be at that meeting.
Bob explained that 50% of the $2.29 per hour class registration fee goes to
the instructor and the other 50% for administrative staff and cost of the
building. If we are to balance the Art Center budget, we would have to
raise this fee to $3.36 per hour per student, or $88 per class. It was
noted that instructor's fees had been cut back according to the number of
students in the class. The question which arises is are we trying to
accomplish a self supporting center?
Pat Greer mentioned some other things that had been done to decrease the
deficit and ideas which will be implemented in the future. A new category
of membership has been created, a $10 membership which will be called the
"Friends" membership. The all -city mailing which recently went out brought
a lot of registrations. The possibility of more corporate donations is
also seen as something to pursue strongly.
Bob Kojetin stated that something different about the Art Center is that
they have only part time employees who all work about 20 hours a week, no
full time employees as at the other facilities. He stated that Marion will
be retiring the first of the year.
Joan Lonsbury thanked both Pat and Marion as well as their husbands, for
all the hard work they have done at the Art Center and congratulated them
on the success of the programs. Joan feels there are a lot of hidden costs
in other programs that are not shown in budgets, and that a lot of money is
used to support all the other programs and some of the cost of the Art
Center should be underwritten just as it is in other activities.
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III. FORESTRY
Bob Kojetin stated that this year the operating budget will be changed and
tree removal on the boulevard as well as those in the parks will be on the
Park budget. We have been responsible for aquatic weed control also, but
that will now go to the Engineering Department budget. We do not have
funds budgeted to do a 100% control job on the aquatic weeds, just as with
the dandelions. We can currently treat only 20% of the shoreline by state
permit on some lakes and all of the water on small ponds under one acre.
We presently are treating 21 lakes and we cut weeds in the Millpond and
Mirror Lake.
Mr. Kojetin reported that we have had a tremendous loss of elms due to
dutch elm disease this year. He showed the chart of losses from 1971 and
it appears that the losses will approach the record high set in 1977 of
1800. It appears that about 1500 elms and 300 oaks will die in 1985. A
lot of the trees that were privately treated for dutch elm disease,
especially the larger trees in the Country Club area, are now dying from
Dutch Elm disease. There are 122 boulevard trees now marked for removal
which must be removed by April of 1986. To date 380 elms have been removed
from the boulevards.
Bob Christianson asked how long a person has to remove the trees after they
are marked. Bob Kojetin replied that generally the tree is to be removed
no more than 20 days after being tagged.
According to Bob Kojetin the heavy losses of elms trees will cause a big
increase in the tree budget - a 30% increase primarily due to the large
size of the elms because of the extra expense of grinding the stumps by
contract labor. We are continuing to maintain tree removal and also
contract tree trimming in the City of Edina in order to help slow down the
spread of Dutch Elm Disease so that all of the elms will not be lost at one
time. This would be devastating to the community if we lost all of the
trees at one time. We should be cognizant of the fact that we do not have
a very ambitious tree planting program in the City of Edina. We have been
planting an average of about 50 trees at the miximum per year with a little
reforestation of areas in the City that do not have trees. The residents
in Edina generally do a pretty good job of planting trees within their own
yard, especially on the west side of Highway 100. We are presently growing
a small number of trees in our nursery at Braemar which will be planted in
the parks and some on boulevards. We also have a contract with our
contracted forester, Bob McGuire on an experimental basis whereby we pay
him approximately $60-$70 for a tree that he has been growing in his
nursery over a period of five years. We have paid him a maintenance cost
for the upkeep on these trees and have also purchased the original
seedlings which are "whip" size. We will be harvesting the first of these
trees next year. The $60-70 investment for these individual trees which
will be in the 3-4" category will be worth about $300-$400 a piece,
depending on the species. At the present time there are approximately 250
trees in his nursery from 1-5 years of growing time. In the long run, this
will not be enough to reforest the total city boulevard trees which we
would be faced with if all the elms are lost. Of course the loss of
boulevard trees also includes oaks lost to oak wilt.
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Bob Kojetin introduced Richard Anderson of the Park Maintenance staff who
is in charge of the tree removal and tree maintenance program for the parks
and boulevard, who added to the statistics of tree removals and the amount
of time and money it is taking for removal of the stumps by private
contractors. Because of the larger trees that are being removed this year
it has taken much more time and money to remove the stumps and for them to
fill in the holes with black dirt and seed.
IV. RECREATION REPORT
John Keprios reported that all associations are experiencing a decrease in
numbers of participants in all sports. The Football Association had to
combine 7th and 8th grade for the first time in many years. The Firearm
Safety program has begun and there are a lot of members of the Optimists
who are teaching the classes. We will again be hosting the Adult State
Football Tournament this year.
John Keprios reported that the Edina Baseball Association is planning to
donate some money to Braemar for a new sound system which will be worth
approximately $2,700, because they experienced a larger profit due to more
income from tournaments this year. The Edina Hockey Association has
approved donation of $25,000 to be used for improvements of the lights at
Braemar Arena and other capital improvements.
V. OTHER
Joan Lonsbury reported that she had attended the seminar sponsored by Larry
Laukka in July and it had been a very worthwhile meeting. She noted that
the program director from Detroit had presented some very exciting ideas
for programming a facility such as Edinborough and mentioned that such
programming would be key to the Edinborough park.
Joan also mentioned that Paul Foss had spoken at the Council Meeting on
September 9th of his concern over parking in Utley Park because it had been
dedicated as a War Memorial Park. Bob Kojetin reported to the Park Board
that he had gone back into the files pertaining to Utley and the dedication
of the park and from what he found it appears that only the flag pole area
was dedicated as a War Memorial, not the entire park.
Bob Kojetin stated that the Hockey Association and the Gymnastics
Association have been meeting to discuss the possibilities for a joint
project at Braemar where the Hockey Association is interested in building a
new natural ice sheet with a roof, and the Gymnastics Association is
looking for some new type of building. During our first joint board
meeting a discussion came up in regard to the condition of the present
pavilion facility. Bob Kojetin had indicated that at the present time we
are in need of repair of the concrete floor and the plastic pipe which is
leaking in the Pavilion. We hope that we will be able to stop the leaking
this year, but within a year or two a major project will have to be done to
replace the concrete floor and plastic pipe at the Pavilion. A preliminary
estimate for this job is $210,000 to put in a new refrigeration floor and
$40,000 to remove present concrete floor and piping. After a discussion of
the joint associations an idea was brought up that maybe if a new floor
would have to be replaced maybe the old Pavilion could be turned into a
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gymnastic facility and a new pavilion would be built with an adjacent sheet
of ice and roof along side. The present floor in the Pavilion and the size
of the building would be very adequate for a gymnastics facility. There
would have to be some upgrading of heating of the building. The Gymnastics
Association and the Hockey Association will be appearing at the Tuesday
evening council budget meeting to request a feasibility study to look into
this type of facility for the Braemar Arena. The list of Park Board
committees was handed out.
Bob Christianson made a motion THAT A RESOLUTION OF THANKS BE WRITTEN TO
THE EDINA BASEBALL ASSOCIATION AND THE EDINA HOCKEY ASSOCIATION FROM THE
PARK BOARD. Don Wineberg SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION CARRIED.
VIRGINIA SHAW MOVED FOR ADJOURNMENT. BOB CHRISTIANSON SECONDED THE MOTION.
MOTION CARRIED.