uh we have a uh parks and trails commission meeting this evening but uh lacking a quorum. This will be uh an information meeting without uh doing any action items. Um, so I'll call thatformational meeting to order. Um, I guess we'll start right away with department and commission liaison reports. Uh, Lisa, you want to start us off? Sure. I've got a variety of updates for you guys for tonight. Um, as far as the prairie management goes for this year. So far, the spring moes have been done at the Valley View and Swagger Park prairies. Um, Minnesota Native Landscapes is doing the work again this year. Um, our 2024 Tree City USA award um was fulfilled. We received notice of that a couple weeks ago now. So, Oak Park Heights has now been named a Tree City USA for 43 years and a Tree City USA growth award winner for eight years. [Music] Um, also right now, Willow River Company is still working on the winter asht tree removals list. Um, they've got, I think, most of the trees all down now. They've started stump grinding. So, once all that is wrapped up, we'll be ready for the Boulevard trees to be planted here this spring. Um, Hoffman and McNamera Company will be doing that work. Uh 53 trees will be removed. 57 will be planted. How many planted? I'm sorry. 57. Okay. And this is all part of the 2023 Minnesota DNR Sha Tree program bonding grant award that we received. Um and then also this Friday is Arbor Day and the month of May has been proclaimed Arbor Month in Oak Park Heights. Um, new this year, we did a tree seedling giveaway entry. Um, we've got some forms on the counter up here at city hall as well as they were included on the city newsletter for the spring as well as the city Facebook page. [Music] Um, what else? Oh, for this year too, we need to do a ceremonial tree planting. Um, typically we do that in May. So, we'll plan that, get that set up, and then, um, probably make a activity book or something again to go with our Tree City USA board requirements for 2025. And I believe that is it I have for tonight. So, yeah, that is all. Okay. If I could just add ask one question, although it won't be official, is that something that we want to schedule before the next uh park commission meeting, our tree planting? I mean, we can certainly send out an email, I suppose, as well, but yeah. Uh, thank you, public works director Kegley. I think what we what I'll probably do is I'll send out a since we don't we're missing a chunk of our commission tonight. I'll send out an email and see about availability and maybe what we'll do is we'll do the tree planting. I don't know which park you're thinking but maybe we could do the meeting just right at the park right with the tree planting. Yeah. I mean even if we plant a tree here at city hall which we were thinking Oh we do that and then just come inside and have our meeting. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I'll shoot out an email and check availability and if uh the meeting night doesn't work then we'll just kind of shoot around some other dates and pick something. Okay. So we can get it done in May forever month. Right. So that probably with our May meeting is what you're going to attempt it. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Were Were you going to talk about the invasive species handout? Uh, Lisa or somebody Yeah, I can. Um, Maria Young contacted me again this year to do the same purple loose drive dig event as uh she did last year at Valley View Park with her group um Wild Rivers Conservancy. She'll um she plans to do the event on Wednesday this week. um after the event she'll kind of give us an update on how it annual mulch project. They were at Autumn Hills last year. Those fellas do a great job. We really appreciate them and they're here to volunteer for the communities in which they work in and live in. And so uh this is I think the third or fourth year in a row that uh similar group to this. It's not the same people, but there are some of the same. Um, and so I expect that they'd probably be out again this September, uh, doing the same thing in a different park. So, we'll get them set up. Uh, we do thank them for their for their service here in Oak Park Heights, and, uh, they really enjoy working here. So, um, the second thing was our trail reclaim project. We did that a little bit late last year, but it was very successful. We got 58th Street uh, reclaimed. So, we have a brand new trail of brand new asphalt from Oak Green Avenue all the way to the high school. Uh that project, as you can see here in my report, did come in $33,000 under budget. And so, that's great. Um that money just stays in the uh in the trail maintenance fund and uh we'll be able to use that for uh future maintenance. Um I give a little shout out to Commissioner uh Van Djk. Uh thank you for calling us regarding the Per Creek uh bridge. We really appreciate it that there was a situation where the city of Bayport had a couple of um uh drainage ditch projects going on and they had the weirs closed and we kind of forgot about the weirs being closed and the water level down at the Perl Creek Bridge was uh way too high. So we had to get that down before uh it froze. uh that bridge, the walking path there is not um secured into the ground is basically just sits on top of the the ground in that pond. And so had that frozen, we might have ended up with a a twisted, broken bridge. So, thank you for calling us on that. We were able to fix it no problem. Uh the swing sets were installed at Oak Park Crossing Park. You may already know that, but uh that was a successful project. Um, we have a wonderful uh park worker, Andy, Andy C. we call him here at city hall, but he is a uh retired Washington County custodian, and he uh saw Lisa and I uh surveying some trees in one of the parks and asked if we had volunteer opportunities. We said, "We can do you one better, Andy. Um, we'll get you on the payroll." And so, uh, Andy's been working with us now since last year. He does a wonderful job cleaning and he really enjoys it. So, what an asset to the city. I just wanted to shout give him a shout out as well. We really appreciate his efforts. Um, the Swagger Park tennis courts have been crack sealed. Uh, that was a a pretty easy deal as the contractor did the work. Um, they did they did a good job. I mean, it it's not doesn't look perfect. It's not a brand new court, but they did they did a good job on that. So, we reported about our ice rinks. As you folks probably remember, we did not have ice rinks very long last year, obviously due to weather, and that's there's not a whole lot that we can do about that. So, I think our rinks were open about a month, month and a half, something like that. Um, and then I listed some of the projects that we plan to uh take on this year, including more trail maintenance, some landscaping improvements to Cover uh Park, which you've already kind of seen some some progress on that. just some minor landscaping at Autumn Hill at the Autumn Hills Park sign. That's really mostly just cleaning up uh some of the vegetation within that sign and it's in the area. Um setting up internet service to the city parks. This is kind of a uh it's the first step in getting us uh cameras in those parks. So without internet access, we're we're not uh we're not going to be able to have cameras at the park. So that's this is the first step. Um the Brekie Park hockey boards, uh the city council approved a contract to replace those boards. Uh we worked with a uh fencing contractor rather than the Arena Systems. They're the standard uh rink providers in the area, but they're also very very expensive. They're specialized and expensive. And so we found a couple of fencing contractors that gave us great quotes. Uh Fence Me In. Um, I think I might have added it in here. What was their number? Um, so they are proposing to complete the work for uh $43,970 as opposed to $125,000. That's quite a cost savings. We can certainly use that money elsewhere and and we will. So, um, and then, uh, the last item is at some point, uh, this summer, we will be moving the, uh, the city of Oak Park Heights Rock that we have, uh, placed over just, um, I suppose it's somewhat north of Century Power and we're going to put that in the mound uh, at Nurell Avenue as kind of a welcome to the city of Oak Park Heights. So, um, but yeah, uh, I handed out this, um, this document to you folks, and that's kind of an explanation to our trail maintenance, uh, work this year. The council did approve the contract from Minnesota Paving and Materials for just about $140,000. Again, a great price for the work that they're doing. You can see in the update the areas that we will be uh reclaiming are um will be the entirety of the Autumn Hills Park, all the trails within Autumn Hills Park. And then uh just north of City Hall here, we're going to have the trail basically uh from City Hall all the way through Swagger Park replaced. We also included an alternate. You see the yellow line in the map there. That is the easement trail between 57th Street North that leads into Swagger Park. Um so we're going to replace both the fencing and the trail um on that easement trail and that will add an additional uh $16,500 for the fence. And the same company, Mau Fence, uh will be installing that fence that they did the work, if you recall, last year, along the south border of uh of Swagger. And so it'll it'll tie right in and match. Um they did a great job on that fence and I expect they'll do a great job on this one. So, oh, let's see. And then the landscaping improvements to Culver Park. So, um we we'll consider that about 50% complete. the remaining portions our public works staff uh will be uh uh handling and that basically is um installing a black chain link fence along the uh eastern border there on the top of the hill and then uh uh we'll do a little bit of grounds clean up and you know making the park look nice again and uh so that chain link will go from the building to the playground then essentially. Yes. Yep. Just short of the building. We're going to leave a little gap if we ever have to get back there for any reason. Otherwise, we'd be, you know, kind of slinking between the fence and the building. So, but there is a um help me out, Lisa. What? It's a uh the wooden fence split rail. Split rail. There is a split rail fence behind the building there. And so, the fence will essentially butt up to that split rail fence. So, in a nutshell, that's what we've been up to in the parks. Uh, thank you. I I just have a couple questions about um some of this. Uh I know my memor is fading, but did we at Cover maybe 2, three years ago talk about having a memorial sign? Yes, we did. Where is that? Uh out in the ether somewhere. Yep. Okay. Yep. We will revive it now that we've got now that we've got the rest of this work uh underway. That's certainly something that we will bring back up. And uh I I think Jen, we could probably get that on uh next month's uh meeting agenda. You know what? It's already been approved by the Parks and Trails Commission and approved by the city council. So, we could just go for it. Just go for it. Okay. Better yet. Sounds good to me. Fantastic. Um, and then a question at Brekie. Did we talk and again this probably a year ago about a path that ran from the parking lot on the north part that would take somebody around the baseball field like on like I say from the parking lot on the north end of the bigger field on the bottom and then with steps going up to the top park. Am I recalling something or did I just make that up? I do believe we discussed that at the uh at the work session we had regard uh regarding the uh park walkthrough. Correct. Yeah, I think that was a part of that and um we don't have any numbers for that, but I certainly can work on getting numbers for that. You know, I don't know how fancy that has to be, but I'm I'm thinking just something if somebody's pushing a stroller through there or something so they don't have to just go through the field, you know, if there's something easier for them. Yeah. or somebody with a wheelchair or something. Yeah, you bet. Are you So, you're thinking asphalt, the hard surface, whatever we can afford. Okay, I guess we'll look into it. All right, thank you. And then a third one at uh Oak Park Crossing. Um there's getting to be on the trails on the trail up on top on the top level. Um a lot of cracks in that black top and a couple of them are getting fairly wide. I don't know if taking care of them now would be smart um before they get any bigger, but especially down like between the two gazeos on the east end um fairly big cracks and again ju I think you're okay but uh to walk there or bike there or whatever but they they seem to me they got bigger over the last 3 months or so walking there. So, just something to take a look at. You bet. And see throughout the whole trail, George, or just the Well, there's a lot of small ones, you know, and that's going to happen. But but the the one I'm concerned about, I as I was walking and and the snow and ice is melting. You could see water kind of rushing through that one. So, yeah, that's how they get bigger. Before it gets any bigger, might want to Was that at the top of the stairs, did you say? Nope. It was between the two gazeos on the east end there. Thank you. Do you know the one where I'm talking about? We walk there in the afternoon sometimes after dinner and I said, "Wow, that's a half inch crack and you can see the water going through it." So, I'm assuming it's just it's one of the parts of the field that you know there's moisture there and it just surface drainage or Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yep. We'll we'll look into that. Thank you. We actually do have a uh a crack sealing uh uh machine. Um it's rudimentary, but it works. So, we could we could take care of that this summer. Sure. Good. Good. Thank you. Um okay. Uh under visitor or public comment. Uh I'm sorry. Chair um Chair Hector, we were going to have Annie do her little presentation under the other commission leazison report. Okay. If you could have that real quick. Sure. Hello, fellow teachers. I have been working on the 2025 Oakford hike summer events the last few months. And if it's okay with you, I'd like to share with you everything I've been working on. This year, I took into consideration all the comments I had received from both Park Heights residents last year. They were interested in more entertain entertainers at um the art in the park which is hosted Tuesdays at Autumn Hills Park. So 10 out of 12 days we have we will have entertainers. I'm really excited about this. I have also considered such comments such as they wanted nature events. So this year um for the first time I will be trying out something new called discover our parks where I will be meeting once a month um with the fellow community and we will I say wear your hiking shoes and bring a water bottle and we'll walk through the parks. I have chose Brekie Park, Covert Park and Valley View Park. Um, I what what the hike I don't know I want your ideas on what the hike might include. So maybe something if you think of something special that's at that park specific. We could talk about that or perfect timing. Um, Mr. Hener, you brought up about where the park names. So, we could even talk about like the history of the parks. Um, but I am open to those ideas and I'm really excited for this new opportunity. Um, so open to all ideas for them. And then we have a fan favorite. We have bingo. Um, mudday at Park and of course our fairies, fairies in the park. They will be here May 12th. Um, and that is always a fun event as well. Questions? Looks like pretty full summer. Yes, I will be finalizing everything in the next couple weeks and then we will be advertising on Facebook as well as posters will be posted throughout the parks and Oak Park Heights businesses. Can these things be sent out to the elementary schools before they leave for the summer? You'd think that's pretty captive audience if there'd be some way to post them at the elementaryaries or Yeah, that's a great idea. I can look into that. We good, Jennifer? Yeah. Lots of stuff. Wish I had little kids to take to this. Okay. Well, thanks for the information. you do a great job with this. So, I'm sure this summer will go well. Also, I'm super excited. Thank you everyone. And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out or ideas. Thank you. Now, visitor public comment. Uh, South Hill Community Gardens, Dan Eer. Hello. Um, yeah, my name is Dan Eer. I'm a uh resident, but I was an Oak Park Heights resident for 16 years and I sat up here on the parks commission for many years. I think I was a chair for about four years or so. So, um fun seeing some friendly faces back here, but uh appreciate the time here. Um basically just more of a information. I know when I was on the parks commission, we had a number of people asking about a community garden in O Park Heights and we kept saying we don't have one. we don't have one. Um but um I am the uh uh garden manager kind of volunteer position for um I used to be at the Bayport Community Garden which is now the Anderson Elementary School construction site. So I'm out of a job on that part of it which thankful um I get a little extra free time in the summer. But last year I took on also being the garden manager for the South Hill Community Garden. And uh both of those gardens were started in cooperation with some churches in the area. So the one south hill was St. Peter United Church um and that's up on Orleans Street and the Bayport Community Garden was uh People's Congregational down in Bayport. Um but basically as I was doing some research on South Hill Community Garden last year, I realized that the garden is technically in Oak Park Heights. Um the church itself is in Still Water, but the garden and the yard area there around that is technically Oak Park Heights, that fun crazy northern Florida there. So, um just kind of wanted to bring it forward and say that, you know, you guys have an asset that I know back when I was a community member at Oak Park didn't realize we had. Um registration in the garden is open to anybody. You don't have to be I'm not a member of either of those parishes. Um but uh so anybody in the community can um get a garden plot. They're 10 x10 plots. Um there's also uh North Hill Community Gardens the water um has a garden plots up there. But uh just opening up that uh there are opportunities for people to have a 10x10 plot if they're interested in that. Um it's a nonprofit uh group that runs it. We're all volunteers. Um we have a volunteer um opportunity coming up next Saturday where we have to replace about 15 to uh 20 of the July 10 x 10 boards which I'm going to pick up a bunch tonight to get ready for next weekend. Um so again just wanted to bring it forward as some information. Um obviously as every volunteer and nonprofit we're always looking for funding but um I'm not here today to ask for funding. So, um, but, uh, if you ever have some, you know, park funds or you have some volunteer people looking to volunteer, um, or if anybody want to reach out and, um, get a plot in the garden, you can go out to the, um, uh, St. Croy United Church website and, um, on the homepage, there's a, uh, reg registration form. My information is on there as well. Um, this year, we've got two or three people that have contacted me. They just want to help and they want to volunteer. They want to help work a garden. They don't want a garden. They just want to go out there and help weed. And we always try and have a few plots where we grow vegetables to give back to the community as well. Um so we dedicate a few plots for that to give back. That's basically it. Any questions? So is the idea how do we get this out to people? Is that what you're looking to do? Opening it up. Um just trying to get the information out there. We've got some plots that are available yet this year. We've had people calling um but uh we do have openings. So just hoping that people can see it and know that there is a community garden in the area and if they're interested, they can reach out. Um like I said, my information is on the registration form and they can contact me directly, if they want to have questions, they want to volunteer, they want to they want to see it, they want to help, they know where where we can uh donate some vegetables throughout the year because every, you know, you always end up with more vegetables than you can than you can manage with it seems like. But uh um again just an opportunity to let you guys know that the this exists in Oak Park Heights that uh I didn't realize it existed in Oak Park Heights in the past. So we didn't either. So this just north of Oak Park School, correct? Yeah. Okay. So you can see the from the garden you can see the park school and and stuff right there. But you look to the south. Okay. Um, yeah. So, right in that area just uh over by where SE Funeral Home kind of east of that. Yeah, in that area. Okay. So, if you're in the area, pull in and, you know, take a look at the garden. Feel free to pull a few weeds if you're there. Look for help doing that. But again, just wanted to be anformational for you guys on the parks and and with the city to let you know that you do have that asset within the city. And um if you ever want to, we're always looking for, you know, in the future doing things with with children, you know, teaching them how to grow things. I've been working with a partnership plan around, you know, another community gardens in the area, but we're always looking for more gardens, um to uh grow things in as well, but uh it's hard finding space to put in community gardens. Dan, how many beds do you have out there? Looks like uh we have 20 uh 10 x 10 beds right now. That's pretty darn good. Um there's spots for um six more if we'd like to add more. Okay. Um you know, we're struggling with water out there. You know, running a hose across the parking lot from from the church and then we're paying for, you know, city water. Bayport was gracious to donate water back when we had the garden in Bayport, but uh you know, it's tough to get, you know, water into some of these areas for the gardens and hauling water and things like that. So there again, if you guys want to help us in any way, we've got opportunities, but just came here more as aformational thing for the committee. Trying to get the word out there. Trying to fill up the garden. Thank you. Thank you, Dan. Good to see you. Yeah. Come back anytime. All right. Thank you. Thanks. You know, next summer, Annie, that might be a thing to think about, too. Yes. So on the last page of the packet if you have the package I got I had a huge I had a huge donation of seeds at the end of last year as well. So um I've been trying to contact you know different places to donate seeds and schools and different things like that. So if you wanted to do a, you know, with the kids coming up, we could plant some things or teach them how to It's always good to teach kids how to grow things and where where your food comes from. It's important as well. Yeah. Thank you. I know there's a I can't remember when. Seed swap thing going on bridge brewery coming up. Yeah, there's that sweet a seed swap coming up at Lift Bridge and I guess there's a um a seed swap area in town here that I found out um from somebody. So, I'll be probably donating some seeds to that as well. But I got seeds coming out of my ear thing. But again, there's they expire. So, I'm trying to use them up and I'd love to have an opportunity to grow things and maybe I can donate some to one of the um summer projects coming up, you know. Yeah. Great. All right. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. All right. So, we're uh no public hearing, no old business, no new business. Uhformational stuff. Uh our next meeting, Monday, May 19th, uh 5:30 here at city hall. There is a ribbon cutting celebrating St. Croy River Crossing uh DNR boat launch tomorrow at 5:30 at uh 6055 St. Croy Trail North and there is an upcoming council meeting Tuesday tomorrow at 6:00 here at city hall. Any other information for the good of the community? I think that'll do it. All right, I think we're done. Quick announcement in case you don't know. Thursday, June 5th, party in the park, 4:30 to 6:30 at Brekie Park. June 5th. June 5th. It's a Thursday. Yep. 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Breen Park. I'll announce it at our next meeting, too, to remind you. And then I will be sending out postcards, of course, to every household so that everyone knows. And we hope you come out. All righty. We done. All righty. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.