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BCOL Advisory Council Minutes 04-02-2010BERTRAM CHAIN OF LAKES (BCOL) REGIONAL PARK ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Friday, April 2, 2010 8:00 a.m. Monticello City Hall Advisory Council Members Present: Vice Chair Larry Hance, Martyn Dibben, Lyle Trunnel, Pat Sawatzke, Janice Bergstrom, Jim Lindberg, Rose Thelen, Gene Emanuel and Clint Herbst Staff Present: Stacy Marquardt, Angela Schumann, Kitty Baltos, Tom Pawelk, Marc Mattice and Bruce Westby 1) Call to order by Vice Chair Larry Hance 2) Consideration of adding items to and approving agenda. The Advisory Council by consensus added an update from City Engineer Bruce Westby as their first item of consideration. A) City Engineer Bruce Westby City of Monticello Engineer Bruce Westby made an informational presentation to keep the BCOL Advisory Council apprised of road construction projects that may affect park planning. He discussed the School Blvd. Road construction project and pointed out that School Blvd. needs to be extended to serve future needs. The road is a major collector with a higher speed limit made for mobility. It was originally intended to go from one side of the city to the other. Chelsea Road is a minor collector route running East -West along the freeway frontage. Both roads serve different uses. The City's Transportation Plan, developed and approved in 2006, directed keeping School Blvd. separate from Chelsea. Connecting School Blvd. to Chelsea would create a bottleneck. Chelsea is for heavy, industrial, slow- moving vehicles. Collector routes need to be spaced to allow folks to move from one side of city to another. City would need another collector route if the two roads were to be connected. He presented a map to show the proposed options for road extension and said that the alignment on map is flexible at this point. He discussed numerous pinchpoints west of 90th street. Herbst stated City Council didn't want the road going through the Park. He suggested an option of veering slightly from proposed alignments. Westby said that they'd have to check with the County about that. Mattice noted that depending on the purchase phasing and funding source, there may be deed restrictions placed on the subject property that prohibit a road. Herbst suggested there may be value in having a connection to 39 and the pathway system as opposed to hooking back into Chelsea. There was also discussion about how there are no transportation access points to park on the East side. It was suggested that there be a tie -in to the city trail in NE corner. It wouldn't be necessary that there be a roadway connection based on this plan. If a road plan were to be included, there would likely need to be access to First Lake. If the road doesn't connect back to Chelsea, one advantage would be that there'd be no creek crossing. It was suggested that the City try to line up the road to the north so that the impact to the park is extremely minimal. There is some concern that putting a road through the park will create noise and impact wildlife limit habitat. There was discussion about possibly putting a dog park in but the survey didn't indicate much interest in that option. 3) Approval of Minutes The minutes from the March 5, 2010 meeting were approved as present. February 5th minutes were not yet completed. 4) Master Planning Update: Section Reports A) Overview, Acknowledgements, Introduction: Marc Mattice Mattice has completed an initial draft of the overview. The draft is due in July. Final plan should be presented in September. B) Setting and History: Jim Lindberg Lindberg would like Mattice to send him a sample document of what this section may look like. C) Master Plan and Accessibility: Kitty Baltos Baltos will be developing this portion of the plan. D) Management and Issues /Athletic Fields: Tom Pawelk Pawelk said that the plan is three quarters complete. They are working on a volunteer component. E) Implementation Plan/Park Use: Stacy Marquardt Marquardt indicated that this portion of the plan is almost completed. The implementation plan will be finalized by the next meeting and discussed at a later meeting. F) Site /Resource Analysis and Restoration/Tech Resources: Marc Mattice, Martyn Dibben, Janice Bergstrom, and Colleen Allen Dibben stated that he has gotten preliminaries together and will be prepared to provide additional information in May. 5) Update on Event Planning Angela Schumann presented the proposed schedules for the two upcoming Bertram Chain of Lakes Regional Park events. A) May 18th Public Open House The Open House is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Mississippi Room at the Monticello Community Center. It will include a presentation on park progress to -date and future initiatives. The public is invited to see maps of the park concept and the athletic complex, learn about the land and the funding involved and to give input. The FAQ brochure will be updated and available at the general info stations. Mattice asked each committee to formulate three questions for comment cards by the May 7th meeting to be used at stations at the May 18th event. Stacy will organize the preparation of comment cards at each station. This will provide citizen feedback on the concept plan. Marquardt, Sawatzke, and Hance will staff the Park Use booth. Thelen will staff the friends booth, Dibben and Bergstrom will staff the Tech Resource booth, Mattice and Schumann will staff the general information booth. Glen Posusta and Gene Emanuel are also available on the 18th. Brochures will be ready to go for May 18th. B) June 12 Family Fun Day Ideas from last year's wrap up will be incorporated in planning for this year's event. Consensus of the group was that event was too long last year. Herbst suggested that the event start earlier and end later. A revised event schedule from to 10 a.m. -4 p.m. was considered. Sawatzke noted that the elementary school kids took flyers home to advertise Family Fun Day last year and this should be repeated for this year. Baltos and Marquardt considered sharing electronic mailing lists to increase publicity for events. Info can also be posted on the community education web site. The group agreed to change the times for the wagon rides to 10:30 -3:30. Dibben is available to provide interpretation on the wagon ride. Thelen will be available to offer canoe rides again. Swimming time will be lengthened to all day. Only the most popular amphitheater events from last year will be offered this year. The walking stick event was huge hit last year and will definitely be offered again. There wasn't a huge turnout for the guided hikes so this year hikes will be self - directed. The group agreed that the program should include a nature activity as well as one that is more "fun" and perhaps musical. There is a need for more volunteers. Baltos will coordinate. The group agreed to track event participation use clicker counters at gate to event and also do a head count at lunch. Outside directional signage will be improved. Baltos will handle the in -park signage again. The Lions will bring the cooking equipment on site and help staff the grilling. They will be added as an event sponsor and help transport volunteers around the site during the event. 6) Event Donations Herbst announced that FiberNet Monticello will sponsor lunch during the June event perhaps teaming with Cub Foods. Xcel Energy has agreed to a $1,000 contribution and a request has also been made for Cargill sponsorship. New River Medical Center will supply the ambulances during the event. It was noted that last year's budget was $4,500. Although there were no donations last year, there will be a donation box placed out again. Staff t -shirts can be reused from last year's event. The Friends may offer t -shirts for sale. There was discussion about using $500 of the farming rental money or the motorcycle race proceeds to purchase office supplies for the Friends of Bertram Lakes. 7) Norseman Race The Norseman Motorcycle Race is May 2nd. Pawelk is negotiating with the YMCA to obtain an agreement for the cost of park rental for Family Fun Day. It may be useful to also consider fundraising through concessions. 8) Status of 2010 Purchase and Funding Mattice pointed out that the there may be an additional $250,000 available for a 2010 purchase due to a Department of Natural Resources Metro Greenways grant deal that fell through for another party. Obtaining this grant doesn't change plans for pursuing Parcel 7 for next year. Both the City and Wright County will be asking for an additional $108,000 in funding to support the additional funding. This amount is in addition to the already approved match of $166,668 from both Wright County and the City. 9) Subcommittee Updates A) Friends Committee: Will meet following this meeting. The Friends may do a short presentation for the May 18th open house event. Their web site is up. Business cards are printed. There has been good press. The Friends have had a few comments from folks concerned about the cost of the park. B) Athletic Fields: Pawelk is evaluating immediate and future athletic field needs. He briefly illustrated the plan. The first phase involves an athletic complex. A later use might include two soccer fields and additional access. Future use would involve going further north with the plan. The plan will be available for review at the May 18th public meeting. Q Tech Resources: Dibben and Bergstrom proposed field trips mid -May to look at four areas. This info would be used to draft materials. D) Park Use: Will hold their meeting following the Advisory Board meeting today, the concept plan is ready, and they are working on the implementation portion of the written document. 11) The meeting was adjourned at 9:34 a.m.