Minutes - Council - 06/28/1994 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Case #4: Park Maintenance issues city Administrator Schroeder stated that representatives of the Ramsey Youth Athletic Association (RYAA) are present to discuss maintenance and development concerns for Ramsey's park system. Dave B_a__a_¢k, 6500 - 170th Lane N.W., Ramsey (second year President of RYAA) thanked the Mayor and Councilmembers for the opportunity to address them regarding park concerns. He introduced Sherry Olsen, RYAA's Director of Traveling Baseball and Dawn Youngs, Director of Equipment. He stated that RYAA serves a thousand children, kindergarten through twelfth grade. There are 78 teens in soccer, baseball and softball. There is a five percent increase in sports enrollment since last year and a 20 percent increase in the last four years. Mr. Baack stated the parks need to be adequately developed and maintained to support all the sports activities. He informed Council that RYAA is passing around a petition, for parents to sign, which states that the maintenance in the parks is unacceptable. Bev Swanson, past president of RYAA, stated that the RYAA Board worked hard in the 1980's to get the addition of Field 5 in Central Park. In 1990 and 1991, RYAA appeared before the Park and Recreation Commission and the City Council expressing concern about the same topics as is being expressed tonight. One of the topics is the concession stand that couldn't be licensed unless it was redone; nothing has been done. Also at that time, it was decided that the City would work with the property owner adjacent to Central Park to acquire more land. This topic continues to be talked about. The lighting in Central Park is another area of concern. The lighted fields are the ones that were lighted back in 1989, 1990 and 1991. No additional lighting has been added since 1991. Ms. Swanson stated that the striping of the fields has not been done by the City as was agreed upon. She also requested that the holes in the fields be filled and the fences be mended. She stated that when these requests are made to the City's Parks Department, the same answer is always given "there is not enough staff". She stated that some fill was brought in for the fields but it was from a compost pile and it contained rusty nails, glass, etc. Because of this, Mr. Baack felt it was time to do something about the safety of the children. Ms. Swanson described three separate incidents in one evening at Central Park where children were hurt on the playing fields and that at that time she expressed concern to the City Administrator and some of the Councilmembers about the conditions of the fields. She felt that agreements were made between the City Council, the Park and Recreation Commission and RYAA and the agreement has been modified by the City Council and Staff without communicating it to the RYAA. She explained that the main concern is with the safety of the children. She presented some numbers showing where Ramsey's park budget is in comparison with other cities in the area or other cities of approximately the same size, She questioned how the City of Ramsey could spend so little on its youth when it has the second highest number of youth of the cities surveyed. She suggested that maybe the City is giving the message to its youth that it doesn't care. She stated these children are the future citizens of Ramsey. She inquired why Anoka, Andover, Champlin, etc. spend so much more and they have an older population than Ramsey. She stated she would like to see these numbers evaluated to decide where the City wants to go. Ms. Swanson stated that in 1990 and 1991, RYAA volunteered to do some of the work in the parks such as putting in benches and score boards, etc; however, the City turned down their offer because of a certain code that had to be followed. There was also an offer at that time to stripe the fields etc. She felt that she could not guarantee being able to get the same number of volunteers now. She added, however, that she just found a volunteer to put up the posts for the lights in the fields at Central Park. She commented that RYAA saved the City at least $12,000 by doing the work on Fields 6 and 7. She reported that those fields are in bad shape now as they need fertilizer, water and some new seed. Ms. Swanson informed City Council/June 28, 1994 Page 5 of 10