CITY OF NOWTHEN

PARK AND RECREATION COMMITTEE MEETING

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2009 @ 7:30 P.M.

(Minutes will be taped for transcribing purposes only)

Present: Rose Ann Ames Laurie Olmon Dan Williams Paul Reighard

Absent: Cara Haugtvedt

Others: Jeremy Shook and Vonnie Blomberg

Meeting called to order by Councilman Williams @ 7:31 pm

Approve/Amend the Agenda Olmon asked that we change the order of the agenda to put item #11 Dolomite Park after item #2 Removal of Committee Member. This was agreed upon. Williams asked that we change #8 to read Cross Country Trial Evaluation not Snowmobile Trail Evaluation

Olmon motioned to approve the agenda; Ames seconded. All in favor; motion carried.

Approve/Amend the 08/04/09, Park and Recreation Meeting Minutes.

Ames made a motion to approve the 08/04/09, Park and Recreation Meeting Minutes; Olmon seconded. All in favor; motion carried.

1). Floor Items

Harlan Meyers, Nowthen Resident, addressed the committee requesting that they look into charging a fee for entrance to the Twin Lakes Park. Consideration should also be given to cost for maintenance of this; whether a person attends a cost collection site or if we would use an honor system with a lock box.


Williams stated that he spoke with Elk River Parks personnel and they use an honor system that is working. Williams also stated that a lot of people that use our park are from outside areas, specifically Elk River.

Mr. Paris, Nowthen Resident, also questioned if other parks were using the honor system or if they have a person stationed at the gate.

This will be looked into in the future with more information at the next meeting. Williams will talk again with Elk River and see how they enforce it.

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2). Removal of Committee Member (Cara Haugtvedt)

Williams stated that Cara Haugtvedt faxed in her resignation as a member on the Park and Recreation Committee. Olmon read the faxed notice to all who were present. A copy of the notice was handed out to committee members. Basically the resignation stated that she joined the committee to discuss her point of view on the park systems in our city. She feels that the committee is hand-tied. She feels that each decision has to be approved by the City Council; although she appreciates that process, she feels it can and has hampered the way of running the park systems in our community.

Williams asked if the sign was still out that we are searching for more people to be on this committed and it is.

Olmon motioned to accept Haugvedt‘s resignation; Ames seconded. All in favor; motion carried.

3). Dolomite Park

Jay and Deb Mattys, Nowthen residents, were present tonight as they want to be a part of the process for determining on what the park land becomes. They are the previous owners of the land and want to help with decisions. Mr. Mattys stated that their goal with the land was to always make it a nature area. It is a very small piece of land. The Mattys, at a previous time, discussed some of their ideas with Mayor Schulz. They would basically like to maintain it as a blue bird sanctuary. They envision wild flowers, nature grasses, and bird houses.

Olmon stated that she had talked with the Natural Conservation man from Anoka County regarding this property. She stated that between Anoka County, Nowthen, and the Mattys, the park could become this blue bird sanctuary. Mr. Mattys stated that he would maintain the park so there would be no cost to the city for that.

Williams asked what “natural” meant to the Mattys. Mr. Mattys stated wild flowers, bird houses, wild grasses, etc.

Ames stated that Cross Roads School in St. Francis makes bird houses that we could look into purchasing.

Olmon stated that she did some research on her computer for a blue bird sanctuary and found very interesting information for this project. This would include what plants work best to have blue birds concentrate to an area.

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Ames asked what the cost would be. Olmon stated we did not know yet. Mrs. Mattys said most of the area is already prepared it would be minimal cost.

Olmon stated that we need to have a plan in place and send that to the State of Minnesota as part of the deal for it to be park land.

Mattys asked that possibly four bird houses could be installed.

Harlan Meyers, Nowthen resident, stated that he installed blue bird houses at his house, which is located near the Mattys’ neighborhood. He immediately (within an hour) had blue bird response to these houses.

Olmon stated that we could put together a four-year plan. We would state what our plan is now, what we would do next spring, next fall, etc.

Ames stated that a plan needs to be made up to present to the Park and Recreation Committee and then this plan could be presented to the City Council. At this point, Mr. Mattys wished to install the bird houses this year. Olmon stated that she would work with the Mattys.

Olmon asked that a plan be put together for meeting next month.

4). Rental Schedule/Information Boxes for Shelter

Olmon stated that she takes a laminated piece of paper and weekly goes out to the shelters at Twin Lakes Park. This paper states that there is a fee to rent these and the schedule for the rental.

Olmon states that she feels the people are not aware of rental possibilities. She is proposing that information boxes (very simple design) be put up with rental information in them. It would include a schedule for the week and/or month for rental. These do not have to be on all shelters but on the main ones as it would be beneficial.

Williams asked if this is essentially “rental advertisement” and Olmon stated yes it is. It could only be beneficial to us to bring this to public attention. Williams stated that there should be a big sign stating “rental pavilion” located on the shelters so people could see that they are able to be rented. Williams feels that Olmon’s idea is a good one but he thinks that maybe a board stating that we rent them would be beneficial as well. This way as people are walking by the sign they would see that they are rentable.

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Olmon states that she wants something simple. She looked through catalogs for purchasing these and they are too expensive. Ames brought up other ideas for frames for displaying this information.

Williams asked if we could add it to the beach sign. Shook mentioned a sign approximately 4 x 8 feet could be added at the entrance gate.

It is felt by Williams and Olmon that we really need to do some kind of advertisement to put the word out to the people in the community that we do rent these out. Reighard asked if it was on the website and it is.

Olmon stated that she would bring in some ideas for the next meeting.

5). Marketing push for Soccer Fields - Ideas?

Olmon stated that we need to do some kind of marketing for the soccer and softball fields. Maybe a mass mailing out to local schools and local ball organizations could be mailed out with our rates and general information about our facilities.

Ames stated that we do not have organized teams in our area. Olmon stated that we do not need to have our own teams, we can have outside teams come and use them. Ames asked if other communities know that we have these facilities. Olmon stated that she does not know if they are aware or not and that is the reason why she wants to do a mass mailing to get the information out to them. Ames states that on our facility forms it states that we have soccer and softball fields for rent. Olmon stated that if they do not know that we have these fields to rent, then they would come to our City to rent them and thus seeing it on the form would not be helpful if they did not know we even had them to rent. We are trying to draw in organizations that do not know about our field rental.

Olmon closed by stating that we should make it a priority to market our rental fields.

Mayor Bill Schulz, Nowthen resident, stated that St. John’s School rents out our soccer fields each year for a few days.

Olmon feels we should contact the surrounding cities and let them know we do have fields to rent.

Blomberg stated that when we send out marketing for the fields; we should also let them know that we have a concession stand for rent. This would be a way for a team fundraiser.

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Williams asked if the soccer fields could be used as football fields as well. There are no goal posts. It may not be feasible for football.

6). 2010 Fees Schedule for Twin Lakes Park Facilities

Discussion was held regarding our current fee schedule and what they should be for 2010. Comparison handouts were given to the committee members that showed the fees for surrounding cities. These were used to compare with the Nowthen fees.

Ames stated that some of the handouts showed that we were charging more for some things and less for others. She was wondering if some of the costs at some of these parks included an entrance fee in their fee or if it was free to drive into the park. Williams asked what kind of parks these were; ie city or county. He wondered if there were any city parks that actually did charge an entrance fee.

Ames asked if we knew how much the shelters were used this year. Olmon stated that they were used a lot. Concessions were not used. Williams asked about nonprofit organizations and the fact that they do not have to pay a fee to rent.

Ames asked if the soccer fields were used at all. Olmon stated that at Twin Lakes no. Ames also asked about the softball fields. Williams and Olmon stated that they have never seen anyone out there.

Mr. Ames feels that we need to prepare for the future. We need to have lots of ball fields available for future use. He feels that Elk River is over loaded with players. Mr. Ames feels that we will be very busy here with the ball fields.

Chris Bassett, Nowthen resident, asked about ice rinks for skating. Olmon stated that this is something that has been brought up before. Olmon stated that the cost is high for maintaining the rinks. Ramsey is looking into closing skating rinks because of the costs. Olmon stated that she would like to see rinks here but the cost is quite high. Williams feels that the cost would not be as big of an issue as thought.

Using a rink “liner” was brought up. Doing this would make the use of an ice rink a longer period of time during the season. This is a good idea to look into.

Ames stated that some of the terminology should be changed on the forms. She felt it should state rental cost, ie. $50.00 fee plus $50.00 refundable deposit. This would make the cost statement more clear to read.

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On discussion of the powered shelter, Olmon stated that it has been rented out a lot. It is rented out approximately three of the four weekends in a month. Olmon stated that the non-powered shelters are also used.

Paperwork for shelters with power should read that the fee is $50.00 for residence plus a refundable $50.00; $100.00 nonresident plus $50.00 refundable damage fee. Williams thought that non-resident should be less. Ames said that $75.00 would be a good cost. The committee decided to hold off on this item of powered shelters until the next meeting.

Shelters should not be raised. Non-powered shelters should stay the same.

The concession stand has not been getting rented out. This should be marketed better. Olmon stated that the fee should be left as is. Ames stated that Elk River does not charge a fee for the shelter if they rent a field.

Ames felt that since we do not have a school here that we do not get the school activities to use our facilities.

Olmon brought up the issue of who will be taking care of the field while the games are going on. Are we going to be paying for Shook to go out there or are we having the teams do it. Olmon stated that if teams come from other cities they currently are paying for the maintenance fee at those locations, so we would need to charge less for our fields if we are not maintaining them.

Soccer and baseball fields should be raised for next year according to Olmon. Currently we charge our softball/soccer fields as $5.00 per field per 4 hours use for residents and $10.00 per field per 4 hours for nonresidents. Olmon suggested changing it to charge by the hour or dropping the time limit down to 2 hours. She would rather do $20.00 for two hours for nonresident.

Ames, through the use of her handouts, stated the policy and rules for Plymouth Parks. She likes how all of the information is on an additional sheet within the packet for pricing. She feels that we should put our policy and rules information on a second sheet or on back of the first sheet. Ames stated that a form with everything on it would be nice. Ames made up a form (for park fees) on her own. She did not make copies of her form to share with the committee.