North St. Paul City Council — Transcript
Saturday, March 15, 2025
Election of Park Commission Officers
2025 City Events Planning and Volunteer Support
Conceptual Design and Planning Report for Three Parks
Commissioner Expectations and Responsibilities
Southwood Park Task Force Status and Grant Exploration
Park Updates and Liaison Roles
Votes (5)
Election of Park Commission Officers for 2025
Dissent: Dave Andren and one other commissioner (unidentified by name in the vote count) opposed the motion, after Dave had previously expressed preference for retaining current officers.
Moved by Ingrid Kler [0-4-32] · Seconded by Rachel Lucas [0-4-40]
The meeting began with a motion to retain the current officers. Commissioner Laura Greenley Karp expressed interest in the Chair position, leading to a discussion about leadership rotation and the specific duties of the Chair and Vice Chair. The staff clarified that an absent commissioner could be nominated and elected. After considering different options, a new motion was put forward to elect specific individuals for the roles.
2025 City Events Schedule and Commissioner Volunteer Request
Eva, the Communications and Community Outreach Coordinator, presented the preliminary schedule for 2025 city events and requested proactive volunteer support from commissioners. She detailed past challenges of being the sole staff member at events and outlined expectations for commissioner involvement, including attending pre-meetings and providing physical presence at a minimum of two events annually. Commissioners immediately volunteered for several events. Suggestions were offered for leveraging community resources, such as high school track teams and religious organizations, and coordinating with the Silver Lake Association for cleanup efforts.
Presentation of Parks Conceptual Design and Planning Report
Trig Hansen from HGA Architects and Engineering presented the near-final draft of the conceptual design report for Downtown Open Space, Third Street Open Space, and McKnight Athletic Complex. He outlined the extensive community engagement, site analysis, proposed design concepts (e.g., nature play, flexible athletic fields, potential skate park, support facilities), and conceptual cost estimates. He clarified that cost decisions were not the primary focus during concept development but rather the needs and desires of the community. A commissioner inquired about artificial versus natural turf comparisons for long-term budgeting, which HGA agreed to add to the final document. Commissioners lauded HGA's work for its intentionality and community focus.
Southwood Park Task Force and Grant Funding Exploration
Commissioner Dave Andren expressed concern regarding the lack of activity and clarity on the Southwood Park task force. He inquired about the process for commissioners to proactively seek grants (e.g., from Ramsey County) to address specific park maintenance needs, such as removing storm-damaged trees and managing invasive plants, given the city's Public Works department's existing commitments. The Community Development Director confirmed that staff would discuss the task force's status and encouraged commissioners to bring forward information on potential grant opportunities for staff review.
Park Updates and Liaison Assignments
Commissioners shared updates on new lighting at Casey Lake Park and the completion of an Eagle Scout project at Southwood Park. Cassidy Schweiss/Staff Liaison provided updates on the Parks and Open Space Master Plan's progress, extended hours for hockey rink lights, and assigned Rachel Lucas as the new liaison for Tower Park and Northwood Park. The discussion also covered the role of park liaisons in monitoring park conditions, receiving resident feedback, and the potential for conducting scheduled, publicized meetings within parks to enhance direct community engagement, with staff agreeing to explore the feasibility of such initiatives.
Notable Quotes (16)
I actually would really like the opportunity to be the chair and experience what that role um is like and allow somebody else the opportunity to be the vice chair.
I'm fine with it I'm I've always been ready to step down and see what it's like to be over there.
you can you can you can nominate somebody who's not here you can vote them in okay and then if she comes back and says I don't want this at your next meeting you can change it.
I'm juggling two different roles during events I'm both you know coordinating the event but also taking photos and videos to promote North St Paul and what we're doing um and so because I have to be in multiple places at once I need a dedicated team of people behind me who know what's happening what needs to get done what's going where who have my back back if something goes wrong or just to make sure that everything's okay.
I'm not asking to you guys to take back you know planning and executing and running these events um I'm comfortable with this role um but I can't handle everything like I did last year.
you may want to get a hold of the track coach at North because in the past they have done cleanup as a requirement to be on on the track team and he has held uh food and so forth now they've got a new coach now because the other one retired but you might want to reach out and see if they have any plans to do that cuz that would be some more resources for you.
hopefully this what we're leaving you with is a document to guide you for fundrais and initiative energy for these and other parks within the system.
this design didn't include making decisions that were cost based at this time it was uh the approach that was taken was creating concept designs that re reacted and responded to the needs and the desires of the city and the residents and saying in a as I was researching the language in an aggressive manner the costs of them so that moving forward it would be easier to make decisions on how to find the right budget for the project.
artificial turf is great but you know it's it's got a real short life span and it's something that's going to have to be redone every few years so as we try to move forward budgeting anything we'll need to know kind of where that is which will have to be brought up in front of us all the time we don't want something that's going to say six years from now fall in disrepair like we have now at mcnight Fields.
I just want to say thank you for all of the work and the intentionality that you put into this being a commissioner that was a part of this like it was very clear that the whole time your goal was to create a plan that would ultimately serve the community to the best of its ability and your entire team brought that energy.
is it possible to maybe write a grant try to get something through Ramsey County or something where they could send in you know skilled qualified people to help with the down trees I know the city's also busy with the ashore um uh removal and they still have quite a few in Southwood.
feel free to reach out to us at any point if you you know if you are aware of a specific grant that you think would work send it to us and and then we can research it as a staff and um you know determine if it's something that you know one we're we um qualified to even receive a lot of you know grants can be very very tricky very specific you there a lot of them come with some strings attached.
it would help to uh figure out or find out what's the status of the task force so because if the task force is really not surviving or or thinking then maybe we need to uh re reassess the whole thing reassess it incorporated into the uh Park commission again.
we asked that if you're assigned to a park maybe once a month to go out at least once a month take a look see if there's anything you notice that needs work or is great even if you have great feedback um and you can bring it back to the following meeting um to let us know if you have recommendations or just anything of note of Interest.
has anyone ever done like a a scheduled and like announced like I'm the liaison for this park and I'm going to be here on this day of this month come chat with me.
but if that is some if that is something that you want to do as the liaison of the park I I think you can if you want to like formally you know like use City channels and whatever okay uh you would check in with Sarah and then yeah we would get approvals and stuff like that but yeah so if that's something you want to do just connect with Sarah.
Ordinances & Resolutions (6)
Protocol for facilitating meetings, mentioned by the Chair.
Existing city document being updated, incorporating portions of the new conceptual design report.
Final draft presented by HGA, outlining conceptual designs for three city parks.
The competitive process through which HGA was selected for the park design project.
City plan noted to provide some funding for repairs at McKnight Athletic Complex.
Digital tool to be used for commissioners to sign up for event volunteering.