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BCOL Advisory Council Minutes 05-07-2010BERTRAM CHAIN OF LAKES (BCOL) REGIONAL PARK ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Friday, May 7, 2010 8:00 a.m. Monticello City Hall Advisory Council Members Present: Pat Sawatzke, Jim Lindberg, Rose Thelen, Clint Herbst, Glen Posusta, Wes Olson, and Pete Stupar Advisory Council Members Absent: Vice Chair Larry Hance, Martyn Dibben, Lyle Trunnel, Janice Bergstrom, Gene Emanuel, and Stacy Marquardt Staff Present: Angela Schumann, Kitty Baltos, Tom Pawelk, Marc Mattice 1) Call to order Glen Posusta called the meeting to order at 8:01 a.m. and welcomed visitors. Visitors Eileen Kiebel, Rachael Gardner, Jim Hayes and Sandra Theros introduced themselves. 2) Consideration of adding items to and approving agenda Mattice suggested adding an item related to Legacy funding meetings happening around state. Thelen suggested adding an item about grants coming available through SHIP. No motions were made. 3) Approval of February and April Meeting Minutes Motion by Stupar to approve February 5, 2010 and April 2, 2010 meeting minutes. Motion was seconded by Thelen. Motion carried 7 -0. 4) Review of May 181h Open House The advisory council discussed preparations for the upcoming Bertram Chain of Lakes Regional Park Open House. Each of the four subcommittees will provide a public information station. Concept maps and historical information about the land and lakes will be available as will internet access. Local associations will be invited to attend. Signage advertising the event will be posted at the Chamber kiosk. The Family Fun Day brochure will be available at the open house. Thelen and Sawatzke agreed to list a public service announcement advertising the event in the upcoming Wright County Board of Commissioners meeting. Information will also be available as part of the City's e -news, and on the scrolling sidebar on the City's website. A) Comment Cards Comment cards were reviewed and approved for distribution. The advisory group decided to request local residency information on the comment cards. Lindberg suggested that the comment card might request that anyone with any historical information about the Bertram project contact the Friends group. B) Stations The stations are prepared to provide information to the public during the open house. 5) Review of June 12th Event Schumann reviewed the Family Fun Day event brochure with the advisory group. She noted that the brochures are being printed and that event sponsors will be listed on the back page of the brochure. She stated that Susie Wojchouski had also donated $200 to the event. Sawatzke agreed to email the event brochure and link to Community Ed and other school districts for additional publicity. The group discussed the issue of sponsorship signage at the event and agreed that it would be appropriate. Olson pointed out that it is important that people see the business support for the project. Clear Waters Outfitting Company will donate the use of six kayaks and six canoes and transport the equipment to the site. FiberNet Monticello will sponsor the lunch, the Lions Club will provide the tent, grill and servers. It is anticipated that fifteen Lions members will be on hand to help cook. Olson will bring the refrigerator and cooler. Schumann noted that FiberNet had requested a table and a spokesperson at the event. Mattice reported that staff has updated a to -do list. Activity times and info have been confirmed. Volunteers can contact Baltos to sign up to help. Mattice contacted the Herpetological Society to participate in an amphitheater event. The Monticello Boy Scouts are unavailable to participate this year. Last year the scouts helped with carving buckthorn walking sticks. The group recommended having more adult assistance with that type of event. Pawelk will try to contact the Becker scouts to determine their availability to participate. 6) Review of 2010 Purchase Pro An addendum to the Memorandum of Understanding between Wright County, the City and the YMCA will be brought to City Council next week. This will clarify terms for acquiring another parcel of the property utilizing grant matching funds. The land survey has been completed and the certificate of survey will be completed soon. The appraisal will be completed by May 14th. The draft of grant agreement will be sent in to encumber the funds. Title work and closing docs are yet to be completed. Schumann stated that the City will draft a check to the county after approval from council by mid - June to pay for the next City portion of funding for land purchase. The group reviewed a map of the Bertram property to clarify the phasing of the project. 7) Master Planning Update Once the draft of the master plan has been completed and will be shared with the advisory group for review. It will then be brought before the Wright County Board and the Monticello City Council to be adopted as a master plan. 8) Reconfirm Regional Park Logo Thelen's brother designed the Regional Park logo at no charge. Motion by Olson to allow the Friends of Bertram Lake to use the logo with the Friends name. Motion seconded by Stupar. Motion carried 7 -0. 9) Update from Norseman Race Pawelk reported that there was a great turnout at the motorcycle time trials held at the park. He pointed out the path of the race on a map. Staff has preliminarily inspected trails and feels that they were restored to satisfactory condition. There was discussion about having the technical committee perhaps do a more in -depth analysis of the trail restoration and the condition of the aging bridge. It was noted that Norseman uses funds from the proceeds of the race to do restoration. The race usually brings $5,000 in gate fees. The Monticello bike club helped with the clean up. There are no longer ATV trials held at the park. There was discussion about perhaps establishing a contract with Norseman and the YMCA to establish parameters for next year's race. There was also discussion about establishing a lease agreement once the property has been purchased. 10) Subcommittee updates Mattice reported that the subcommittees have been meeting and are on task. A draft of the athletic fields (including an accessibility plan) will be made available for review. More detail will be added to the Natural Resources component. The Tech Resources group will complete site visits on May 12th. The concept plan will be available at the open house. Both the Friends group and the Park Use group will meet after this meeting. The Friends group will be ordering Friends t -shirts to sell to the public at the Family Fun event. Proceeds will go back into growing the Friends group. 11) Added Items Legacy Funding: Mattice attended a Legacy funding meeting in St. Cloud and shared some of his observations. He stated that there are some sixteen meetings scheduled throughout the state. The purpose of these meetings is to get feedback from stakeholders about how Legacy funding should be allocated statewide over the 25 -year plan. He noted that it was well- attended by folks from different parts of the state. There needs to be an emphasis on making sure funding is distributed to greater MN as well. There were opportunities to vote on concept issues and give input in both visioning sessions and small workgroup discussions. Mattice pointed out some of the concerns other localities are having with using Legacy funding. Many use the grant money to purchase property but don't have sufficient money budgeted for operations and maintenance. Mattice suggested that another great way for advisory group members to get involved is to sign up with the Citizing website (www.citizing.org). The MN Parks and Trails Legacy Project is the featured project on the site. Participants can take an 8 minute survey to give input in determining how the parks and trails money will be allocated throughout the metro, the greater MN regional and the greater MN rural areas. Citizing data will be summarized by the U of M and formulated into a proposal. Mattice, Thelen and Dibben have signed on to the site. Grants: Thelen stated that there are up to $25,000 in State Health Improvement Program (SHIP) funds available through ten grants and two rounds of funding. The second round of funding focuses on creating policy change to encourage community building. The group has applied for gap funding through this program citing a community garden as an effort at community building. Lindberg mentioned he would also like to see a community garden as part of the Bertram concept plan. 12) Adjourn Motion by Thelen to adjourn at 9:25 a.m. Motion was seconded by Stupar. Motion carried 7 -0.