Agenda - Parks and Recreation Commission - 03/15/1984

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I I I I I i I I I -I I March 5 Quad City Rec. Board Meeting Page Three w~th a great amount of support from the principal and the Park Board members. They had acquired a 20 acre park site through the Joint Powers Agreement where- by there will be four ballfields, a soccer field, football field, tennis court and playground apparatus with an underground irrigation system. He explained the projected completion was approximately five to ten years down the road, as capital expenses play a great deal on the amount of development they will have. He stated also that he has had a very good working relationship with the City of Champlin and the School District in developing this park site. The only sharing or use by the City of Dayton in the Anoka area is during the football program. He explained that the soccer programs are affiliated with Brooklyn Park and all softball and baseball programs are affiliated with the City of Champlin. Mr. Steve Schwarze from the AYAA explained that there is a tremendous need for a boys softball program from high school through elementary school and that a number of communities and residents have expressed concern as to why the athletic association does not offer softball for the youth who are not interested in playing baseball. There was discussion by the members of the board regarding resident partici- pation of facilities. Fritz Anderson explained that you must live or work in the community with which you play. He then explained the shortage of fields in the immediate area. In the past, we have been doing our best to provide fields to church organizations. We have now found that we are not able to do this anymore or we're going to have to be very restrictive in doing so. A number of churches have now sponsored womens church teams, as well as mens church teams. There is a mens church softball league which is programmed through Fritz Anderson but there is nothing for the women. There is also a church which reserves fields on Friday nights to play other churches of the same denomination. We are finding it very difficult to provide services to them. I I I I I I I A1 Zahn from the Anoka Parks and Recreation Advisory Board then handed out the City of Anoka's Comprehensive Park Plan. He went over the book with the mem- bers of the Recreation Board and explained the process in which the City of Anoka is heavily involved with the redevelopment and the capital improvement program of their park facilities. There was some discussion regarding the maintenance costs for the different sports. Butch Brandenburg pointed out that by far football is the most detrimental of all the sports on the facili- ties. Mr. Schwarze asked Butch Brandenburg what was going to be done with the John Ward fields this year, as the fields were very heavily used last year and they are in a state where repair is necessary. Butch Brandenburg explained that the John Ward fields are on a three year sod replacement pro- gram and the only thing that we would be doing this year is seeding and mulching this area and trying to redevelop the turf during the summer pro- grams. He also explained that there has been a tremendous amount of work done on the Sunny Acres softball fields, whereby the City has been leveling and resodding these fields. These fields are eight years old and as they are on top of the landfill, there has been a lot of settling and worn areas that must be replaced in order to make these fields safe. Fritz Anderson then commented that the City of Coon Rapids is raising their maintenance fees, which are charged to each team, from $20 to $55 per team. Hilary McNallan commented that the DNR is in the process of developing two very large islands between Anoka and Dayton for camping areas and we should be contacting the DNR to find out what type of development is going to be done on this flood plain property. Mr. Zahn then explained the working relations between the