Agenda - Council - 05/10/1994 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MEMORANDUM DATE: May 2, 1994 City Council CC: FROM: SUBJECT: Ryan Schroeder, City Administrator Sloven Jankowski, City Engineer ky McAloney, Administrative Services Manager and Recreation Commission B~njamin Deemer I Dandelions in Hunters Hill Park The following is ataff direction from the April 26 Council meeting: Ben Deerr}er was present at the Council meeting on April 26, 1994. He commented on the dandelioniinfestation in the Hunters Hill Park. He said it is affecting the surrounding residence~ and asked that the City do something about the dandelions. Council suggested that this i~sue should be discussed by the Park and Recreation Commission. It was mentione0, that possibly other parks have the same problem. Council felt that this issue should be ~lealt with on a case-by-case basis and would be up to the Park and Recreation Commissip.n.n. Please place this issue on a subsequent Park and Rec agenda. Also, please notify Bert Deemer of the Park and Rec's decision. Maybe even send him notification of the meetir~g it will be discussed at. Following the Commission's dealing with this issue, please repO~rt what was decided upon and what was done to Council. This could be written up as a memo on the Consent Agenda. The above conce~ was expressed by Mr. Benjamin Deemer in May of 1993 on a couple, of occasions. Mr. Deemer and I discussed the various costs of maintaining parks in a pristine state; the fact that one hSlf of Hunters Hill Park is left wild; and noted that many residents have concerns about using chen~icals in conjunction with parks and sandy soils (ground water concerns, particularly, Hunte~rs Hill). We agreed that broadleaf control for any park would need to be done each season in order to keep it in a "weed" free state. During our discussion, we also talked about the likelihood of ¢eind-bome dandelion seeds from areas outside the park and the difficulty in maintaining appropriate ~ass mowing heights until our part-time help arrives in early June. I informed Mr. Deemer that I was concerned about the cost precedent for treating this park when most parks are mo~e actively used than Hunters Hill, and suggested that we bring the issue to the Park and RecreatitJn Commission for a recommendation at their next meeting of May 13, 1993. Attached are the m~eting minutes from that Commission meeting. Mr. Deemer was notified of the meeting and was no~t in attendance. Historically, the on!y broadleaf control the City has performed has been spot treatment around the Park Center buildirj, g prior to its dedication in 1989 and in River's Bend Park in conjunction with ttirf establishment during initial park development. This year, however, we intend on treating both Central Park and th[e Municipal Center property for broadleaf (dandelion) control in conjunction · ] ' with a fert~ ~zauon. ~The two applications each, performed by a contractor in May and again in the fall, will cost appi'oximately $6,000 for Central Park and $1,300 for the Municipal Center grounds. ~