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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1982-11-16 Park Board MinutesEDINA PARK BOARD MEETING Tuesday, November 16, 1982 7:30 p.m. Edina City Hall MEMBERS PRESENT: Joan Lonsbury, Art Erdall, Doug King, Bill Lord, George Warner, Marilyn Wooldridge, Len Ring, Mack Thayer, Virginia Shaw STAFF PRESENT: Bob Kojetin, Rick Jacobson, John Keprios, Madelyn Krinke OTHERS PRESENT: Denise Rydholm, Jack Moran, Mark Montgomery, James Hurley, Bob Herber, Paul Muchulas, Pete Waggoner, Tom Hurley, Timothy Goodyear, Kirby Herman, Jim Wanninger, Mike Wagner, Tom Sampson I. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF OCTOBER 12, 1982 MEETING Virginia Shaw moved for approval of the minutes of the October 12, 1982 meeting. Mack Thayer seconded the motion. Motion carried. II. GARDEN PARK CLOSING Bob Kojetin explained the reasoning for recommending to the board to remove the hockey boards at the Garden Park rink and to eliminate the warming house there. He showed on a city map where each of the rinks are located and by the charting of rinks, it appears that if Garden Park were closed, anyone in the Garden Park neighborhood would still be within 3/4 mile of a hockey rink. By park and recrea- tion standards, 3/4 of a mile is generally considered a reasonable distance to travel to a hockey rink. Attendance records from last year also indicated that participation was quite low at Garden rink. Removing the boards from the hockey rink would make it more cost efficient for flooding and maintaining, because it would eliminate the handwork. The need for cutting back at the park is a response to the budget cuts which the Park and Recreation Department is experiencing. Heat and light costs were $1600 last year alone, without maintainence of the ice. It was also mentioned that Garden Park does not have a permanent shelter building and is not as cost efficient as other warming houses. The adult Broomball league that was played at Garden last year would be moved to another rink, probably Highlands. Art Erdall inquired about the accuracy of the statistics and John Keprios replied that he knows for certain that they are not accurately recorded. Atten- dance is supposed to be kept by the warming house attendants daily, yet their figures did not account for all of the participants who were involved in the broomball league and other scheduled events. It was pointed out by Park Board members to those present who have been, and may in the future work as warming house attendants, the importance of keeping accurate records because the figures are used in the decision making process. -2 - All of the individuals who appeared at the meeting were given the opportunity to present their viewpoints on the subject of the Garden Park rink. A summary of opinions expressed are as follows: Attendance figures were low at the park because of the poor quality of ice - due to use of the rink for broom - ball and lack of maintenance of ice. Hockey could not be played on the ice. If Garden rink is closed a lot of youngsters will have to cross Vernon to get to a rink, that would be unsafe for little ones. A former rink attendant stated he was sure from conversa- tions with other attendants that many of the attendance sheets are inaccurate or totally fabricated. When ice was maintained well, attendance was up and Garden was a very highly used rink. By removing the boards at Garden and moving broomball to Highlands, two rinks will actually be closed to hockey because the quality of ice at Highlands will be poor and not good for hockey. It seems apparent that it would cause serious overcrowding at other parks. Virginia Shaw MOVED to take down the boards at the Garden Park rink. There was no second to the motion. Bill Lord MADE A MOTION TO KEEP GARDEN PARK RINK BOARDS IN PLACE, MOVE BROOMBALL TO ANOTHER PARK, KEEP ATTENDANCE RECORDS THIS YEAR AND EVALUATE USE OF THE RINK AGAIN NEXT YEAR. Doug King SECONDED the motion. It was discussed that the ice would be better at Garden Because broomball would not be played there. The motion CARRIED, with one opposition. III. REQUEST FOR "MEN AND WOMEN OVER 40 MASTERS 15K RACE" IN EDINA Jack Moran appeared before the board and requested permission for a race to be held in Edina. It has been conducted for three years on River Road course between Minneapolis and St. Paul and he would like to see it conducted in Edina next year. Mr. Moran is the President of the Minnesota Distance Running Association. The "Men and women over 40 masters 15K" race would be conducted on May 7, beginning at 8:30 a.m. The route he proposes using would begin at Braemar Arena, go up McCauley Trail to Gleason, then return on McCauley Trail to Braemar Blvd and then down Dewey Hill to the Industrial Park area by Highway 100 and then return by the same route back to Braemar Arena. The total distance is approximately 9.5 miles. Bob Kojetin mentioned that a race had been planned for the 25th anniver- sary at Southdale and had to be run internally in the Southdale parking lot due to county, state and city roads which would have required closing and the police being unable to block off some of those roads. Mr. Kojetin stated that the same problem could happen in the proposed race being considered by Mr. Moran. -3 - Virginia Shaw expressed her opinion that she would like to see Bob Kojetin meet with Mr. Moran and consult with anyone appropriate in the Police Dept. to see if it would be possible and report back to the board. Virginia felt the publicity would be good for Edina and it would be an event that would not tax the facilities, and the board members agreed that it would be good PR for Edina. IV. VANDALISM Bob Kojetin indicated that there are no recent figures on exact amounts of money which vandalism has cost the city - at one time in the past few years a study was done and at that time about 25% of the operating maintenance bud- get of the park department was due to vandalism. Rick Jacobson gave a brief report on the Minnesota Recreation and Park Foundation "Vandalism Committee" regarding the efforts being made. He indicated that it is very difficult to get funding for such a project and not a lot of progress has been made. A suggestion was made to make the public more aware of how much vandalism is costing them. It was also recommended that next year a study be conducted to determine approximately how much vandalism is costing the city in the parks. V. RECREATION REPORT Rick Jacobson reported that the bandy team had recently returned from a trip to Sweden, which had been very enjoyable. Basketball and hockey registration were completed. Hockey is down about 70 from last year. Basketball held at about 400. A new afterschool program was begun this year, which meets right after school. It is for 3rd and 4th grades only. There are two coaches for each school and clinics are held at four schools. About 100 children signed up for the program. Adult basketball and volleyball have also begun. Registration for downhill skiing will be held the first Saturday in December. John Keprios stated that the bandy program has been expanded this year and will be conducted jointly with Bloomington. Broomball is also expanding this year. Bob Kojetin stated that the Art Center has received $13,000 in donations this year and a lot of it has come from individuals. An attempt is going to be made to increase the class sizes at the Art Center to make it more profitable. Art Erdall MOVED to adjourn the meeting. Mack Thayer SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION CARRIED. Meeting adjourned at 9:30 p.m.