Minutes - Parks and Recreation Commission - 06/13/2002

Home

Councilmember Anderson stated the State Park System had been successful. Chairperson Cook stated each park should have a trail they walk, they could have a passport where they would have four or five parks a season featured and people would need to find certain things in the parks, if they found the items, they would get a medallion. He stated they could also sell walking sticks and people could put their medallions on the walking stick. Councilmember Hendriksen stated they did not have anyone in the parks to monitor them so they could have a questionnaire the residents could fill out answering questions about things that could only be found in the parks. They could put informational plaques in the parks. Chairperson Cook stated they could give out GPS coordinates on the website and the residents would need to figure out which park it was by the GPS and then find items in the park and get a reward for it such as geocash. He stated there were a number of different ways to get people involved. Mayor Gamec stated their parks were brought up from people in other cities as to why they used them and they stated they liked the trails, new equipment. They have received recognition from other cities regarding their parks. Mayor Gamec stated they should start looking at roller hockey and a skate park rink. Chairperson Cook stated the Capital Improvement Plan for 2003 showed plans for roller hockey to be in the hockey rink. Commissioner Shryock stated this would include a wider range of ages if it included roller blading in the park. Mayor Gamec stated they would need supervision at the parks if they were to have these items in the parks. He stated volunteers might want to be involved. Mayor Gamec stated they had criticism regarding the reserve funds. He stated the City was ok but if local aid was cut back and funding didn't come in, a few years it would not look so good. He stated looking at the budget this fall; they would need to find ways to fund these projects. He stated the Commission should look at safeguarding projects. Councilmember Anderson asked the Parks Commission if anything could be done regarding the problem with dirt bikes in the neighborhoods. She stated they were working on amending the nuisance ordinance. She stated she did not know where to tell people to go to ride their bikes. Councilmember Hendriksen stated the people could bring the bikes to a muffler shop to make them less noisy. He stated that what the residents were really complaining about was the noise, not the riding of the bikes. Mayor Gamec stated he had been down by the Rum River and noticed there was a lot of erosion and trash along the banks and he wanted to know what could be done to correct the problem. Park and Recreation Commission/June 13, 2002 Page 7 of 9