Minutes - Parks and Recreation Commission - 09/10/1998

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Commissioner Droegemueller stated he felt there would be with the exception of soccer which will be remedied with additions to the proposed Community Park. Commissioner Johns asked how the fields are scheduled. Mr. Quaal stated there are two games per field, per night, five nights per week. He also noted with regard to soccer this year they had 250 sign ups which is up 100 from last year due to games being moved to Saturdays. He felt there would be more next summer and could potentially rise to as many as 600 participants. Chair Cook asked if that meant there would be 60 teams for the 600 players. Mr. Quaal said yes, that would be the average. Commissioner Ostrum noted there had been a controversy surrounding other cities using the soccer fields and asked if this was still an issue. Mr. Quaal stated there had been visitors using Rivers Bend Park but they had not used them this year. Commissioner Asfahl asked if the fields were being used to capacity. Mr. Quaal stated no, they were not. Commissioner Droegemueller noted the number of players in baseball often has less to do with population and more to do with how the program is run and how happy the kids are. Additionally, due to previous problems in past years, there had been no sign ups in the 5th and 6th grade level. Now, though problems have been resolved, there is still a low level of registrations in this grade level. Commissioner Johns voiced a concern of whether the fields were large enough to handle an increase of older players. Mr. Quaal stated the number of players tend to decline as the kids get older. He also noted that the number of games could be increased from two per week to four per week. Case #2: Receive Amended Five Year Capital Improvement Plan It was noted that at the August regular meeting, staff.was asked to amend the proposed Five Year C.I.P. to direct dollars from any land acquisitions to physical improvements. The "new" improvements resulting from potentially not needing trust fund, etc., dollars for land acquisition are added into Community Park No. 5 as engineering, paving, and turf establishment in the year 2000. Other changes to July's draft C.I.P. are an increase of $30,000 in general fund expenditures. This is applied to the County Road #83 trail in 1999 and 2000. For 2001 it would fund trees at Community Park No. 5. In the plan, the Trott Brook trail receives a projected total of $60,000 in general fund moneys. All amounts are in 1998 dollars. Park and Recreation Commission/September 10, 1998 Page 4 of 8