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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1979-05-08 Park Board MinutesEDINA PARK BOARD MEETING MINUTES Tuesday, May 8, 1979 7:30 p.m. Edina City Hall PARK BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Virginia Shaw, Chairperson; Frank Gyetvan, Mack Thayer, Arthur Erdall, Les Wanninger, Marilyn Wooldridge, George Warner, Al Fischer STAFF PRESENT: Bob Kojetin, Rick Jacobson, Cecelia Smith, Larry Thayer, Rosie Hafner OTHERS PRESENT: Wayne Courtney, June Schmidt, Margie Basil, Dorothy Anderson, Mrs. Edward Kocourek, Mr. & Mrs. Kloss, Mrs. Donna Montgomery, Carl Wassenaar, Pat Finley, Hal Raether, Vern Bleitz; Edina Baseball Association I. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM APRIL 10 MEETING Mr. Wanninger MADE A MOTION that the Minutes be approved as submitted. Mr. Gyetvan SECONDED. CARRIED. II. EDINA BASEBALL ASSOCIATION - Mr. CarlWaasen�ar., Vice -President of EBA (for Darrell Warner Mr. Wassenaar gave a brief presentation of the Edina Baseball Association it's policies and procedures. He stated that registration was up this year from last year and there would probably be even more registrations within the next few weeks. He attributed this increase largely to the development of the Jugs Program. He also stated that boys that have participated in the Jugs Program show a marked improvement in hitting ability over those who haven't. Of 126 players rated who had participated in the Jugs Program, 57 rated above average in hitting ability, this compares to a similar group who hadn't participated in the program where out of 81 rated only 14 were above average in hitting ability. The Jugs Program is set up for the 9 and 10 year olds. The ball is pitched to them from a jugs machine of which there are two types; one that throws curve balls and one that throws the balls straight. The EBA has purchased 6 of these machines; 2 that throw curves and 4 that throw straight balls. Mr.Wa.s-s-etta_ar. then gave a brief breakdown of the number of registrants per park; Cornelia, 49, Pamela 101, Countryside 108, Normandale 63. There are full time supervisors at each park site and the Baseball Board must equalize use of the four parks. The traveling teams consist of the American League, Sr. Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. These leagues comprise the 45 highest ability players in Edina, 16-18 years of age. Our Sr. Babe Ruth team last year won the Minnesota State Championship. Mr. Wa$sen.aa.,r pointed out that the players are placed on teams according to ability based on their ratings in the tryouts and the Baseball Associations past records on them. The primary reason for placement on teams is balancing of teams. They want evenly balanced teams so that one team doesnItt dominate the season. Mr. Warner then inquired as to how complaints are handled. Mr.W.assenaar. stated that if the complaint is brought to the Board,the Board members will handle it individually; this unfortunately doesn't always happen. There was a brief discussion of the rating system and how it operates: the players are rated on in -field, out -field, and hitting ability and if they desire, pitching and catching. The Baseball Board also checks into the baseball history and sometimes talk. to the school coaches of the players. -2- If a player doesn't perform well in the ratings he is still placed on a team. The results of the rating are not divulged to anyone and the players are numbered so they cannot be identified by name. The coaches are assigned to the teams by the coaching committee, arbitrarily and all are notified at the same time as to who their team is. Mr. Wassenaar explained that the Baseball Association tries to avoid the situation of one team winning all of their games in a season. Mr. Fischer inquired as to why this situation is frowned upon by the association. Mr. Wassenaar explained that it was their belief that this type of situation stifles the motivation of the teams that are on the bottom of the standing. Mr. Fischer disputed this stating that it gave more motivation to the winning teams. Mr. Fischer also questioned the validity of the rating system and inquired as to the league's record last year. It was pointed out by Mr. Finley that in the American League last year the best team had a 14-2 record and the worst team (who went on to win the championship) had a 3-12 record. Mr. Warner asked whether or not there were transportation problems with the teams playing all over the community. Mr. Wassenaar explained that this can be a problem, but the association will honor team requests as long as the team will be balanced. Mrs. Shaw inquired as to whether transfers were possible after the teams had been made up. Mr. Wassenaa.r stated that they generally were not. Mrs. Shaw inquired as to how many complaints had been received. Mr. Wassenaar stated that last year there were only 2 complaints and he had not heard of any complaints so far this year that had come to the attention of the Board. Mrs. Kloss then pointed out that last year she and Mrs. Kocourek had called the parents on the rosters and out of 200 calls there was only 1 who said they liked the system. Last year, Mrs. Kloss pointed out, the parents came to the members of the Board and the City Council requesting that the teams be neighborhoodized this year and wanted to know why this had not been done. Mr. Wassenaar stated that the Baseball Board had voted unanimously that balancing of the teams was more important than neighborhoodizing them. There was than a lengthy discussion regarding neighborhoodization vs. team balancing from which the following were the major points: 1. Fields are located at certain areas in the city and can't be moved it would be impossible for a team to play all of its games at the same field, therefore, some bussing is necessary 2. The Baseball Board feels that the kids will get discouraged if their team continually loses (Pat Finley brought up the example of his son) 3. The parents present felt that the Edina Baseball Association is too structured and professional for this age group 4. The parents felt it was important for the youngsters to play with their friends - the EBA's feeling is that they will form new friendships if they play on a team where they don't know all of the people 5. The rating system is not realiable - this was disputed by the EBA. Mr. Wanninger pointed out that he felt the rating system was good at picking out the top and bottom players but didn't do well at judging the players in the middle 6. Parents don't want to be bussing their youngsters all over Edina all of the time 7. The youngsters are not evenly distributed around the city and this at times makes neighborhoodization difficult, Mr. Kojetin pointed out -3 - Mr. Wanninger pointed out that there must be some sort of compromise that could be made whereby the teams would be reasonably balanced and neighborhoodized to some extent. Mr. Raether stated that there was not much that could be done about this situation this year, people would have to live with it for now and work with the Board next year to alleviate this problem: He stated that he would like to see a group of people such as this come forth and work with the Board next year. When Mr. Kloss stated that this was what they were told last year, Mr. Wanninger inquired as to why they hadn't been contacted to attend the meetings. Mr. Wassenaar pointed out that he was never given a list of names of these people. Mrs. Shaw suggested that the Baseball Association send out a questionnaire to the parents of the youngsters on the teams inquiring as to whether or not they were unhappy with the program. She also suggested working within the system to change it. Mr. Wassenaar pointed out that there are now 2 openings on the Board and that next fall there will be 6 more and invited any and all of the concerned parents to apply for membership. This is the best way, he pointed out, to change the system. Mr. Fischer MADE A MOTION that the policies of the Baseball Association (the selection of teams on ability only) be stated more clearly in the Park and Recreation brochure, thus alleviating some of this confusion. Mack Thayer SECONDED. CARRIED. Mrs. Wooldridge also suggested that the EBA contact the schools and Edina Sun next year regarding their policy since the brochure will not be out in time to inform the people. Mr. Warner amended the above motion indicating that all associations should state in the brochure the basis upon which the teams are chosen. MOTION CARRIED. III. FINANCIAL REPORT ON ARENA Mr. Kojetin pointed out that the year end report for 1978 was not very good; but things are being done in 1979 to change this around, e.g., staff. He pointed out in looking at the financial report for the first 3 months of this year one could already see some changes. Mr. Kojetin explained that due to the re -alignment of the lake conference teams there were more spectator tickets sold this year than last. In ice rental we lost 359 hours from 1977 to 1978. Mr. Kojetin also pointed out that by the end of May we would have $101,158.20 in revenues in the bank and if expenses remained the same for April and May we would then be in the black. Our biggest problem, he pointed out, was to find some way to increase revenues from the end of March to the end of May. His suggestion was perhaps to have some type of hockey program during this time, since the Edina teams were playing in Richfield and St. Louis Park arenas. Mr. Fischer expressed concern over the manner in which the concession stand was run during the ice show. Mr. Larry Thayer pointed out that this was due the fact that there was more traffic than anticipated and the concession stand manager had used last years figures when ordering for this year. Mr. Gyetvan was concerned about the costs listed under "Maintenance" salaries. He stated that this figure increases every year by a large degree and was curious as to why. Mr. Kojetin explained that some of this was due to mis-coding and in fact they were hiring fewer maintanance people this year than last. He stated,.tbat he would look into this situation further and report back to the Board. -4 - IV. CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT Mr. Wanninger expressed concern regarding Capital Improvements at the Arena stating that he didn't feel we were doing enough in terms of improvements there. Mr. Kojetin explained that he wanted to re -surface the front door area and put glass doors on the front entrance ($4500 quote). The Pavilion also needs a new entrance ($5000). The matting in the Arena is eroding and is causing a safety hazard, (to replace this will cost approximately $10,000) and something should be done with the plexiglass. Mr. Kojetin explained that we would have to take $25,000 out of the Capital Improvement budget for these repairs and he would like to take it out of Dedication Funds. Mr. Fischer stated that perhaps if we made a list of our priorities for Capital Improvements, the $80,000 yearly budget could be increased by the Council. He pointed out that it is our responsibility to make sure that these facilities are kept up. Mr. Kojetin suggested forming a committee to put the Capital Improvement suggestions on paper. Mrs. Shaw suggested appointing a committee to establish priorities for Capital Improvement. Mr. Les Wanninger, Mr. Al Fischer, Mr. Arthur Erdall and Mr. Mack Thayer volunteered to form this committee. Mr. Kojetin also explained that in 1981 the bonds for open space will be paid off and perhaps and additional bond issue could be used to increase this $80,000 Capital Improvement Budget to $300,000. It was agreed that the committee should get together sometime prior to the June Park Board meeting and base the park tour on the Capital Improvement priorities. This way the priority list would hopefully be ready for the September budget meeting of the Council. Larry Thayer suggested that he would like to have the above mentioned improvements done in the Arena over the next three weeks when the Arena will be closed. Mr. Fischer MADE A MOTION to give $25,000 out of Dedicated Funds from the Southwest Quadrant for immediate maintenance repairs in the Arena. Marilyn Wooldridge SECONDED. CARRIED. V. PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT Mr. Kojetin advised the Board that the playground equipment for the handicapped had been ordered and should be delivered in about 3 weeks. It will be installed as soon as possible after it is delivered. The Concord playground equipment has been approved by the School Board and will be taken care of by District. Mr. Kojetin also informed the Board that the Dog Ordinance had passed Council last Monday, May 7. Comments on Community Seminar Mrs. Shaw went over the major points covered by the Council at the Community Seminar: 1. Bond Issue 2. The Council seemed very favorable to the Board conveying their strong feelings to them 3. Interest in what the Park Board had to offer for adults 4. What to do about insurance coverage with the Associations 5. The Associations need some policy guidance regarding what exactly is the relationship of the Park Board to the different Associations There was some discussion on this last point and Mr. Fischer felt that some policy should be drawn up regarding this situation so that the the Associations understand what their relationship is to the Board. Further discussion on this was tabled until a later date. -5 - Mr. Kojetin informed the Board that Sunday, June 3, there Festival put on by the Art Center and also the dedication by the JayCees and the dedication of Bredesen Park. Meeting adjourned at 10:55 p.m. Rosie Hafner was to be an Art of the jogging path