Minutes - Parks and Recreation Commission - 10/10/2013

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Motion carried. Voting Yes: Commissioner Fyten, Mobry, Chubb and Mobry. No: None. Absent: Chair Olsen, Commissioners Barr and Minke. 5. COMMISSION BUSINESS 5.01: 2013 Summer Event Series Recap Parks & Assistant Public Works Superintendent Riverblood and Park and Recreation Intern Langholz reviewed the Draw 2013 Summer Event Series kicked off with the City of Ramsey's own RJM Distributing and Killebrew Root Beer on June 20 and continued through the summer to the Park Patron Picnic on September 12 The purpose of this case is to recap The Draw Summer Event Series and receive any feedback or comments. This is also an opportunity to . mention all the sponsors in 2013 that helped cover the full cost of the events throughout the season. The weather for the concerts was nearly ideal all summer long, and attendance grew as the year went along — and over $1300 in prizes were given away for the drawing at the Park Patron Picnic. Photographs from each event were shown and explained by Park and Recreation Intern Langholz. Vice Chair Bennett thanked Park and Recreation Intern Andrew Langholz for his work on these events. He also thanked the City of Ramsey Foundation and all the sponsors that made the summer event series possible. 5.02: Review of "Pocket Park" Policy Parks & Assistant Public Works Superintendent Riverblood reviewed periodically, the Park and Recreation Commission reaffirms it's policy of not recommending the satisfaction of Park Dedication by acceptance of small park spaces or "pocket parks" for new plats — but rather that a more sustainable solution in using the equivalent proceeds (cash dedications) to focus on trail connections between larger neighborhood and community parks; and also further development of those larger existing parks. This last policy review was performed in the context of the multi- year City Owned Land Inventory project. An abstract of that exhaustive process and an excerpt of a part of the Final Draft Policy were provided for Commission review. Riverblood reviewed as part of the aforementioned process, wherein neighborhood connections (trails) to community parks and other regional destinations were explored as a sustainable mechanism for recreation and access to the parks and open space system, trail priorities were identified. While there are hundreds of miles of potential trail -ways, routes and possible connections, there must be a priority assignment for considering new trails given the ever - present shortfall between funding for trails, and all the trail desires. These trail priorities may be thought of as two distinct categories: • Short connections of trails or sidewalks that make "whole" a larger system of trails, or succinct and coherent connections to destinations. Park and Recreation Commission October 10, 2013 Page 2 of 6