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04-14-2021 PR MIN City of Elk Meeting of the Elk River Parks and Recreation Commission River Held at the Elk River City Hall Wednesday, April 14, 2021 Members Present: Chair Williams,Commission members Anderson, Holmgren, Loidolt, Niziolek,Rathbun, and Soltvedt Council Liaison: Ms. Wagner Staff Present: Senior Planner, Chris Leeseberg,Parks and Recreation Director, Michael Hecker, Recreation Assistant,Ali Wallace I. Call Meeting to Order Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, the meeting of the Elk River Parks and Recreation Commission was called to order at 6:31 p.m. by Chair Williams. 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Consider 04/14/2021 Agenda Moved by Commissioner Soltvedt and seconded by Commissioner Loidolt to approve the April 14,2021 Parks and Recreation Commission meeting agenda. Motion carried 6-0. 4.1 Consider 03/10/2021 Regular PRC Minutes Moved by Commissioner Loidolt and seconded by Commissioner Rathbun to approve the following March 10, 2021 Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes. Motion carried 6-0. 5. Open Forum - None 6. Presentations - None 7.1 Park Dedication — Osberg Lot Split Subdivision Mr. Hecker shared his staff report. Moved by Commissioner Soltvedt and seconded by Commissioner Anderson to recommend to City Council to accept staff recommendations to accept park dedication for Osberg Lot Split be paid, at the applicable rate, for the final number of dwelling units when the subdivision is released for recording. Motion carried 6-0. Parks&Recreation Commission Minutes Page 2 April 14,2021 7.2 Farmers Market Coloring Contest Mr. Hecker shared there were 57 total entries submitted and staff narrowed it down to 3. The winning picture will be printed on the free tote bag that will be handed out to shoppers at the market on opening day. Commissioners each voted for option A as the winner. Moved by Commissioner Loidolt and seconded by Commissioner Soltvedt to approve option A as the winner of the 2021 Farmers Market Coloring Contest. Motion carried 6-0. 8.I Organized Use Park Regulations Mr. Hecker presented proposed Organized Use Park Regulations Draft #2. Commissioner Soltvedt asked for clarification if someone requests to reserve the Archery Range would it be off limits to the public or just certain lanes. Mr. Hecker stated it would depend on how many lanes they would need and also the specifics in the application. Commissioner Soltvedt asked if there is a reason why we need to separate the special "......, event permits and organized use park instead of doing them together. Mr. Hecker explained that the special event policy is for city wide events and needs to be approved by different departments, such as Fire,Police, Engineering,if streets need to be closed, and Parks and Recreation if it involves a park. The organized use park regulations are for park events exclusively to be approved by Parks and Recreation. Commissioner Anderson asked if clean up after the events is covered in the policy. He stated that the increased use at Woodland Trails Regional Park is generating a surprising amount of litter. Mr. Hecker stated that will be added to the policy. He shared that larger events, such as Thumbs Up 5k,will need to rent a dumpster. Commissioner Anderson asked how we deal with fundraisers that are used for existing clubs or programs, such as the Nordic Ski Team or Minnesota Biathlon, which run small fundraising events for the support of their activities. PeIENEl 11 NATURE Parks&Recreation Commission Minutes Page 3 April 14,2021 Mr. Hecker stated a governing body, such as a school district,will be exempt. Williams suggests that programs that are tied to the high school, such as a booster clubs, should be exempt. Commissioner Soltvedt suggests if a group provides volunteer activities for the park, they should be exempt. Mr. Hecker stated he believes there is a "Nordic" policy that was put together for ski events before his time. They do volunteer clean-up efforts, and these in-kind services benefits the parks so they should be exempt from the policy. Language for these types of uses will be added to the policy. Commissioner Anderson suggests adding that for both Nordic Ski and Minnesota Biathlon organized uses. Commissioner Niziolek stated he sees a major concern with coming up with liability insurance for Elk River endurance sponsored events. Commissioner Rathbun agrees we would need insurance. It can cost anywhere from 0 to $1000 for event insurance. He asked if anyone else has experience with obtaining that certificate of insurance and what it might have cost them to put on an event. Chair Williams stated the cost is by how many people are in the program and he pays about$400/yr. He will talk to his insurance company to get more information for a one-time event. Mr. Hecker stated staff has talked to other cities that already have this policy in place and was told the insurance has never been a barrier.Also,groups that have had interest have not had any issues with insurance. 8.2 Athletic Field Analysis Mr. Hecker shared his staff report. Chair Williams stated the city council wants to know how many fields we have including the school district to see how we compare to surrounding cities. Commissioner Soltvedt stated the commission will need association participation numbers to help determine long term where we want to go directionally. POIVEREI IV NATURE Parks&Recreation Commission Minutes Page 4 April 14,2021 Chair Williams stated the council asked for participation rates and what he found is there is not a lot of honesty. When an organization thinks they are going to get another field the participation number will increase, and if they think it will cost them more money the participation number will decrease. He stated that after 2021 we can look at the participation numbers from 2019 and 2021. Commissioner Soltvedt asked if the school district has a similar rate structure for their fields. Chair Williams stated their structure is different and will probably change once the stadium is completed.Their rates are more per kid than what we charge on the field allocation policy. Commissioner Loidolt stated he is happy to see the Parks and Recreation Commission working with more of the youth programs and is looking forward to seeing participation numbers. Commissioner Niziolek stated we should look at quality of fields and participation rates. Commissioner Rathbun stated he is glad there is a plan to add participation numbers for further analysis. Councilmember Wagner stated this will help when we continue to plan out and understand what our needs are to make sure we have a vibrant youth community and great places for them to play. She asked if the fields at Dave Anderson Athletic Complex are still used for youth football since they were not added to the spreadsheet. Chair Williams stated he did not consider that because the fields are mainly used for youth baseball and youth softball and you can put youth football on any of the fields. Councilmember Wagner asked what the reaction was from other cities when we contacted them for their field information. Chair Williams stated they wanted to know why we were asking for the information. Mr. Hecker stated the reason it took so long to gather the information is because it took many times to get it from other cities. We were persistent until we got the information. Chair Williams added we grouped Rogers and Otsego together since most of their 1-111E1E1 II NATURE Parks&Recreation Commission Minutes Page 5 April 14,2021 sports programs play together, just like St. Michael and Albertville. 9. Active Elk River Update Mr. Hecker shared the Active Elk River Update with the Director report. 10. Parks and Recreation Director Update Mr. Hecker shared his staff report. Mr. Hecker share the Woodland Trails Regional Park ribbon cutting will be held on Saturday,May 8th and asked if Commissioners will be able to attend at 10:00 a.m. Consensus is for a May 8th dedication at 10:00 a.m. Mr. Hecker stated he will invite the Mayor, Councilmember Wagner and Commissioner Anderson to speak at the ribbon cutting. Commissioner Anderson asked for an update about the park dedication change that was discussed at the last council meeting. Mr. Hecker stated high density apartment units will be capped at a half million for park dedication. II. Announcements Chair Williams thanked everyone for coming out last week to Lion John Weicht Park for the lighting ceremony. Councilmember Wagner stated the head softball coach said a facility like this is not common for youth girls. The girls are excited for the fields. We are close to having the Active Elk River referendum completed. I 2. Adjournment There being no further business, Chair Williams adjourned the meeting of the Elk River Parks and Recreation Commission at 7:43 p.m. P-IIIEREI It NATURE, Parks&Recreation Commission Minutes Page 6 April 14,2021 Minutes prepared by Ali Wallace. David Williams, Chair Tina Allard, City Clerk PSUEuE1 . r NATURE �.