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03-11-2026 PRMIN (1) Meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission Held at the Elk River City Hall Wednesday, March 11, 2026 Members Present: Chair Stewart, Commissioners Goodwin, Anderson, Varty, Niziolek, Fermoyle, and Loidolt Members Absent: Councilmember Grupa Staff Present: Assistant City Administrator/Business Services Director Joe Stremcha, Parks and Recreation Manager Jeff Shelby, and Senior Administrative Assistant Dawn Larson 1. CALL MEETING TO ORDER Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, the meeting was called to order at 06:30 PM. 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. 3. CONSIDER AGENDA Moved by Commissioner Fermoyle and seconded by Commissioner Varty to approve the March 11, 2026, agenda. Motion carried 7-0. 4. CONSIDER MINUTES 4.1 02-11-2026 Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting Minutes Moved by Commissioner Loidolt and seconded by Commissioner Stewart to approve the February 11, 2026, Parks and Recreation Commission minutes. Motion carried 7-0. 5. ELECTION OF CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR 5.1 Election of Chair and Vice Chair Commissioner Niziolek nominated Commissioner Stewart for the Chair position. Moved by Commissioner Loidolt to nominate Commissioner Goodwin. Commissioner Stewart won 6-1. Commissioner Niziolek nominated Commissioner Goodwin for the Vice-Chair position and the commissioners voted 7-0. Chair Stewart took over the meeting immediately following this agenda item. 6. OPEN FORUM 7. ACTION ITEMS 7.1 Parks and Recreation Framework Plan — Scope of Work Mr. Shelby presented his report. Commissioner Fermoyle asked what the original deadline was. Mr. Shelby said that it would be determined based on the recommended length of time the consultant and Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes March 11, 2026 --------- Page 2 of 5 staff would need to complete the work. Commissioner Fermoyle asked if the commission would be involved in the timeline past the April 8 meeting. Mr. Shelby said on April 8 staff would provide a draft of the RFP for the commission to review and approve. That draft would then be presented to City Council at the April 20 meeting. Staff would continue the process through the timeline. He pointed out that the commission would be involved again once the RFP process was completed. Mr. Stremcha said the commission could also put together a small committee to assist in the interview process after they receive the project proposals. If there is only one, staff may not need assistance, and they may want to go back out to bid to gather more. Chair Stewart said he believes it would be advantageous to have commissioners involved in this process. Commissioner Anderson asked who the designee is in the table of contents when that word is listed. Mr. Shelby said it would potentially be a commissioner. Commissioner Anderson said that is what he was hoping for. Chair Stewart said there are quite a few designee spots listed in the table of contents so there would be several spots for the commissioners that are interested in those areas to jump in and contribute. Commissioner Anderson asked Mr. Shelby if the commission would be involved through the entire process and Mr. Shelby said yes. Commissioner Anderson said that if there is enough interest they should be involved in most, if not all areas of the table of contents. He pointed out that there is not a designee listed under the community section. He asked Mr. Shelby if that meant that the commission doesn’t have the expertise. Mr. Shelby said that section could be put together by another department of the city that has additional resources to provide that information. It wouldn’t need to be duplicated by a new consultant. Chair Stewart said when staff come back to the commission in April, they could get deeper into the categories and solicit which commissioner would be interested. Mr. Stremcha pointed out that some of the topics that say consultant would be areas leveraged to help develop or craft the plan where others do not. When they come back in April to talk about the RFP, they would be specifically tailoring the RFP to identify areas where the consultant would need to assist with that work. Areas that do not list consultant, for example, such as the parks and facilities plan would be done internally and not included in the RFP. Mr. Stremcha said there is more to the plan than the RFP where they would need a designee for. Commissioner Anderson asked if this is the time to make a motion for action. He asked if they should decide now for each topic or whether it would be done on the fly based on what the Chair and Vice- Chair decide. Mr. Shelby said that doing so tonight would be convenient. Chair Stewart said they would just go down the list from the top. Commissioner Anderson asked if they needed to list the specific individuals who will be the designee tonight. Mr. Shelby said that they would want to wait until they have the RFP. He is primarily asking the commission to just list the areas they would like to have a designee. Commissioner Anderson said that anywhere it says designee they should add that it is a commission designee if that is the intent. He also said that the categories that are not listed should just be a brief discussion. Commissioner Anderson asked if the overview was already done. Mr. Shelby said it is more of a summary that will be done when the project is done. Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes March 11, 2026 --------- Page 3 of 5 The Commission worked down the table of contents volunteering to assist with the topics they were interested in. Introduction Overview Mission and Values-Chair Stewart Community Profile-none Plan Purpose-Chair Stewart Planning Process-none Executive Summary-none Inventory and Assessment Chapter Overview-none Public/Community Engagement-Commissioner Goodwin Parks Inventory-Chair Stewart Level of Service Analysis-none Park and Trail Use-none System Plan Chapter Overview Arts and Culture Programming Plan-Commissioner Fermoyle Marketing Plan-Commissioner Goodwin Natural Resource Plan-Commissioners Anderson, Niziolek, and Chair Stewart Parks and Facilities Plan-Commissioners Varty, Niziolek, and Loidolt Recreation Programming Plan-Commissioners Loidolt and Goodwin Risk Management Plan-Chair Stewart and Commissioner Fermoyle Trail System Plan-Chair Stewart, Commissioners Niziolek and Anderson Volunteerism and Stewardship-Commissioners Anderson and Goodwin Chapter Overview Roles Opportunities Coordination Recognition Implementation and Sustainability-Chair Stewart and Commissioner Niziolek Chapter Overview Maintenance and Operations Strategy Capital Improvement Plan, Operations, and Maintenance Costs Interview Committee-Chair Stewart, Commissioners Fermoyle and Goodwin Mr. Stremcha pointed out that the timeline is aggressive to make sure community engagement is captured during the peak season. Moved by Commissioner Goodwin and seconded by Commissioner Loidolt to approve that staff develop an RFP for consultant-based scope of work as presented and added to tonight by staff for the Parks and Recreation Framework Plan. Motion carried 7 -0. Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes March 11, 2026 --------- Page 4 of 5 8. DISCUSSION ITEMS 8.1 Robert's Rules Review Mr. Shelby presented his staff report. No questions from the commission. Chair Stewart said it was a good refresher. 8.2 Parks and Recreation Commission Bylaws Mr. Shelby presented his report. The commission did not feel any changes needed to be made at this time. 8.3 Trail Signage - Ebikes Mr. Shelby presented his report. Mr. Shelby explained that the city standard size for signs is 9 by 12. The commissioners were given a printed version of the trail sign in this size for reference. Mr. Shelby said that he believes the Communications department intent is to present a final version of the sign at the next month’s Commission meeting and answer any questions or comments the commission may have. Commissioner Goodwin said it makes sense to her to follow the standard size of signage along the trail, but she thinks the signs should be larger at the entrance to the parks, so people have better awareness of what is expected of them as they enter the park. Mr. Shelby said that the subcommittee had discussed seven locations at trail entry points that were listed at the February commission meeting. Chair Stewart said that he thinks the verbiage is good and will accomplish what they want to do but this size is too small to be read while out on the trail. He said if a person is at a stationary point like a kiosk the sign would be fine but not while moving. Commissioner Loidolt said he thinks that staggering the rules on separate signs as they go down the path could be an option. Each rule could be read with bigger, bolder font. He said that he wouldn’t be able to see this sign if he was riding along at 20 miles per hour unless it was bigger and bolder. Commissioner Anderson said this sign is the same size as the park boundary signs. He said this is a lot of information and should be on a sign that is a minimum of 12 by 18. They should make everything as large as possible on the sign, including the circles, even if it means losing some of the brown space. He also thinks the media campaign will be significant to help educate. Commissioner Goodwin said she thinks the goal of implementing this is to mitigate requiring more resources from law enforcement. Since they already set up a city ordinance, they need to make this as easy as possible, so they don’t really have to reinforce because people will have an awareness. She values the marketing efforts of consistency but also thinks it’s important to make it as legible and large as possible. She is reluctant to stagger the signs because she would rather have the information in one place. Commissioner Niziolek suggested that Trails Rules be one sign and the rules on a separate sign beneath it in landscape form. Commissioner Varty said she doesn’t think anyone is going to read the sign because there are so many signs already. She said catching them at the trail heads is better because people won’t see them as they Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes March 11, 2026 --------- Page 5 of 5 are moving. Mr. Shelby said that communications said the same thing. Chair Stewart said he thinks they should make the sign as large as they can, with the largest print they can and potentially change the orientation of the sign to landscape. Mr. Shelby confirmed the commission would like to see a mockup of the landscape layout version of the sign with a size of 12 by 18, a larger font, and use as much of the brown space as they can to review at the April meeting. 9. PARKS AND RECREATION MANAGER UPDATE 9.1 Parks and Recreation Manager Update Mr. Shelby presented his report. 10. ANNOUNCEMENTS Commissioner Loidolt said that he is concerned that the City Council has started to direct a notion to use the Active Elk River project bonding that he and others did to get for the FT Center, softball fields, and lights at the PT Complex. He did a lot of door knocking for this. The bond will pay off early and so the council is thinking of using that money now for the remaining 15 years to build a fire station. He understands that it is needed but he doesn’t think it should be coming from this Active Elk River money. He said he would like to have the Parks and Recreation Commission discuss this at a future meeting as a discussion item on the agenda. 11. MOTION TO ADJOURN Moved by Commissioner Fermoyle and seconded by Commissioner Goodwin to adjourn the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting at 7:33pm. Motion carried 7-0. __________________ Hal Stewart, Chair __________________________ Jolene Richter, Deputy City Clerk