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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNRRCMinutes-20070410 City of Hastings Natural Resources and Recreation Commission Minutes April 10, 2007 – 6:00 pm 1) Roll Call at 6 pm: Commissioners Miller, Nelson, Rohloff, Schommer, and Vaughan, Parks and Recreation Director Bernstein, Superintendent Smith Absent: Commissioners Popp and Vandehoef. 2) Approved March meeting minutes. Motion by Rohloff. Seconded by Schommer. Passed unanimously. 3) Departmental updates were passed out to the commissioners. 4) Lions Shelter Bid: Director Bernstein informed the NRRC that the low bidder for the new shelter project was Cannon Construction who came in right around $134,000. He explained that staff requested a base bid plus an alternate bid in the process. The alternate bid was for the overhead garage doors and was included separately so that the city could accept the base bid and reject the alternate portion if necessary to reduce costs. All specs/drawings were done by our licensed architect, Dick Fischer. MOTION: Commissioner Rohloff motioned that the bid from Cannon Construction be accepted by the city. Seconded by Commissioner Schommer. Passed unanimously. th 5) Riverwood 9 Addition Park Dedication Fee: The Planning Department asked the NRRC whether they would th like to receive land or cash for park dedication for the new Riverwood 9 Addition. Commissioner Vaughan asked if there was any way to find out about the demographics of the area. Director Bernstein responded that you can generally judge the demographics by the affordability of the housing units that are being built. Commissioner Vaughan expressed concern that this plan had already gone before the Planning Department and been approved. Why doesn’t the NRRC see the preliminary plans so that a decision can be made on park dedication before the approval process? Director Bernstein promised to bring the NRRC’s written request to see the preliminary plans to the Planning Director and staff. Superintendent Smith mentioned that both he and Director Bernstein do attend the Development Review meetings each week and as soon as they hear about a new development, they try to bring it back to the NRRC. Commissioner Vaughan thought that the issue might be resolved by slowing down the process with the developers a bit, giving staff time to get all the preliminary steps done properly. The NRRC would like to see the development plans before the final plat is approved in the future. th MOTION: Commissioner Schommer motioned to accept cash in lieu of land for the Riverwood 9 Addition Park Dedication Fee. Seconded by Commissioner Nelson. Passed unanimously. 6) Vet’s Concession Stand: The new Recreation Coordinator, Jared Flewellen, is dealing with the Minnesota Department of Public Health on this issue. The Dept. of Public Health is classifying the stand as a restaurant, which creates a lot of complications and extra requirements. Director Bernstein mentioned that we may have to go with only prepackaged food items to keep costs down. We can’t start any construction until we receive the approved permit from the Dept. of Public Health. th 7) 5 Street Tree Issue: Superintendent Smith explained to the NRRC that when any construction project is set to take place in the city, either himself or the City Forester go out and inventory the trees involved to see whether there will be any potential damage. Trees are then either removed or protected by the city. A property owner on th 5 Street had trees on his property that were part of the construction zone, but he also had a tree that was kitty- corner from the construction zone that had been marked as a hazard tree. Hazard trees need to be removed and the city pays 40% of the cost of removal, with the homeowner paying the remaining 60%. In this instance, a neighbor’s tree was being removed for free because it was in the construction zone. The homeowner felt that his hazard tree should also be removed at no cost to himself. The Engineering Department, Public Works and the Assistant City Administrator all agreed that since this tree was not in the construction zone, it should be handled under the hazard tree policy. City Council agreed, but did make one allowance to cover the cost of the stump removal as well. 8) Park Upgrades: The list of proposed park upgrades for 2007 was handed out to the NRRC. Major projects were included in the 2007 budget. Commissioner Vaughan asked about the park improvement request process that the NRRC had developed last year. Director Bernstein replied that this process had been presented to City Council and approved. The Park Improvement Request forms will be sent out to the NRRC so that the commissioners can review the process. At the 2008 budget review meeting in June, the NRRC will be able to prioritize future requests for budget review. 9) Lake Isabel: The low bid for this project was from Sun-Ram Construction and came in at $360,479. This is about $125,000 less than the initial estimate the city received for this project. Due to the tremendous savings, Director Bernstein would like to use additional park dedication fees to complete the entire project in one year, instead of doing it over a period of two years. A brief history of the Lake Isabel project was given for the benefit of the new commissioners. The bid from Sum-Ram Construction covers the total project, including the parking lot. Barr Engineering is overseeing this project and will supervise the contractor. The engineering costs have already been included as part of the 2007 budget. Commissioner Vaughan felt that staff needs to try and promote Lake Isabel more, especially since the city will be spending a lot of money for all of the improvements. Commissioner Nelson asked if there are any restrictions on the type of motors allowed on Lake Isabel. At this time, there are no restrictions on types of motors allowed. Commissioner Miller recommended that since Lake Isabel will hopefully be used more frequently in the future, the NRRC should review the regulations for Lake Isabel and possibly make adjustments to ensure that the lake is used properly by everyone. The NRRC requested that a TRAC bus tour of Lake Isabel be included with the May meeting. MOTION: Commissioner Rohloff motioned to accept the bid from Sun-Ram Construction in the amount of $360,479 and to use additional park dedication funds to complete the entire project in 2007. Seconded by Commissioner Schommer. Passed unanimously. 10) Arena Floor: Director Bernstein stated that the arena floor will be patched again this year and should be operational for this season. Staff is hoping to sign a consultant this fall and bid the project out, with work being completed in 2008. Staff needs to speak with turf representatives as well. Director Bernstein also mentioned that st there will be early ice again this year, starting the 1 week in August. The money that was budgeted for the floor this year will be carried over to next year’s budget. 11) New Business - HAST: Commissioner Vaughan recapped a meeting that staff had with HAST (Hastings Area Swim Team) recently. HAST has requested to use the pool five days a week in the mornings for practice. Staff wants to allow them to use the pool Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings to allow for more open swim and lap swim opportunities. It doesn’t work well to have the adult lap swimmers and HAST in the pool at the same time. Staff feels that since this is a community-wide pool, we have to make sure that all residents have times available to use it. HAST does have the ability to go to the middle school for practice, but they prefer to use the outdoor pool in the summer. Last year, lap swimmers were very happy with HAST using the pool 3 days a week, but HAST was not. Staff will be providing more history and research on this issue. Commissioner Miller was concerned that a relatively small group of residents is being given such a large share of the available pool time. 12) Old Business - Alternate Commission Members: Commissioner Vaughan asked if any progress had been made in getting 2 alternate commissioners to sit on the NRRC in the event there is not a quorum. Director Bernstein has brought the suggestion forward to the City Administrator who was not opposed to the idea, but said that currently the timing is not good. - Ponding Basins: Commission Miller asked about ponding basins and who is responsible for them. Many of the ponding basins are city property. Public Works oversees them since they are mainly for storm water management. Some are used as parks though, like Featherstone and Rosemary Ponding Basins. Commissioner Miller expressed concern that some of them are in poor shape, with lots of litter in them. Superintendent Smith explained that the maintenance of these ponding basins is a joint effort by the Parks & Recreation Department, the Public Works Department, and Administration. Director Bernstein said that he would mention the NRRC’s concerns to the Public Works Department. th Next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 8, 2007. Adjourned at 7:12 p.m. Minutes submitted by: Kristin Behrens