[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] today is monday june 21st 2021 and i'm calling to order the parks commission meeting for the city of oak park heights and uh at that point we'll have an approval of the agenda as it stands yes i move to approve thank you agenda's been approved we'll we're going to move to the next item is parks and trails commission vacancy candidate interviews okay do we have uh anyone ready we do so um i know typically you do this when we're when we're here in person we do this kind of in a work session setting right um but it doesn't it doesn't have to be a closed meeting so we'll just go ahead and and let um jennifer go ahead and come in and um we'll just go from there so letting jennifer in now i'm gonna flip to hello jennifer welcome you have your voice on are you speaking with me yes said welcome here i'd like to introduce you to uh the people in those little boxes around you it's sort of a new experience for us to do an interview on zoom as well um i'm judith earhart and i happen to be the chair and uh up in the corner is george hepner and he is a one of the commissioners the rest are andy kegley is of course our public works director lisa danielson is in the public works field too and is our arborist for the city and of course jennifer is up in the corner and uh she pretty much keeps us all going and running the city hall crew and down at the bottom is carly johnson who is one of our city council members and is the uh liaison for the parks and trails commission uh with the city council and the mayor so that brings us to uh we're very happy that you applied for a membership and how we usually do this when it's not covet is is to have you in like a work session with just the board members and uh at this point we're going to do it uh with just uh george and myself and i'm going to ask you some questions we have your application in front of us thank you jen for getting that to us and so we can go from that but we'll ask the questions that we ask each applicant and i'll start with why do you desire to be a parks and trails commissioner for the city of park heights sure um i love our trails and our parks and i walk we walk as a family we just walk today we walk a lot of days i walk a lot of days um and i'm always kind of trying to sell it to other people that come to stillwater i am i'm new in the neighborhood and i'm like we've got the greatest trails and i think we could do a lot more with our trails as far as promoting our city having festivals or something not not anything huge but family friendly you know walks and things like that because i think you know we have a great city we have great trails so um yeah i would love to be a part of that wonderful george yep yep i've got the next question for you uh could you describe a situation in which you worked as part of a team and what part you took and what went well i'm usually organizing um i'm in real estate so you are good at organizing become a real estate agent and you really have to become good at organizing you have to organize your time constantly in situations and you know what fires are real players and what are things you have you have to put on the back burner so i'm good at managing managing uh groups um a million years ago i used to be a medical coder and there's so much work to do you have to manage that workload kind of the same thing with knowing what's important has to be done first so as far as part of a team a medical coding team getting the parts done that you need to do right now and then you know knowing when you can you things you can get to at a later date so i suppose i'd be the managing part of it of a team thank you in what ways do you think you can make a contribution to the oak park heights parks and trails commission you started answering that already and be a cheerleader that's for sure i love our trails i've been walking these trails for i want to say 12 years now um i watched the progression of them putting the bridge in and how the trails were before the bridge and how much better they keep getting um yeah i'm in the traffic you know i used to be the like one of the only walkers me and a couple others on those trails when it was uh road here just a you know the when you had the exit that you still got on 36 and seeing more and more people walking on the trail so i would say i would be a good cheerleader and promoter of our our city trails and parks oh thank you okay um yeah when you look at yourself what would you say are the strengths and uh weaknesses that you have that you would bring to the parks and trails commission got a lot of enthusiasm um i guess i see the positive spin on things how to make things you know maybe it's not the way you wanted it exactly but how can we make something happen even if it's you know make lemons out uh lemonade out of lemons kind of a situation um so my weaknesses um i suppose you know i'm not the best at kind of numbers and and analytical things like that uh that's probably my weakness as numbers and i need to uh get better at that but that that stuff kind of wears me out faster than getting out face to face with people and talking to people and being uh socializing and things like that so analytical things make me tired so thanks so what rewards do you expect from your service on parks and trails i don't know i just think i think you seeing people use it i think they're so great we've got so much you know our parks are amazing there's places to have birthday parties and i mean they just put the the new building down here by my house i live on the other side of 36 by the overlook on peabody and upper 61st street and they put that new uh building down there and beautiful um i just i don't know we have a great city i like to promote it that's a reward in itself i don't need like a reward you know so and i see that you are currently on the planning commission is that correct yes so you do have some background with city hall and yeah i was surprised i saw that a little while back i was i've been on the planning commission since 20 2017 and that surprised me so oh wow well you thank you so much for that do you have any questions for us um what are your meetings like i guess how are they different than the planning commission and the city council well one of the things uh an important difference is that we are an advisory board if you will uh without the same kind of responsibilities and that the planning commission has that's why carly is so important part of our organization she's at every meeting and she brings messages to us but she also carries our recommendations and that kind of thing back with her to her city council meetings which are twice a month and uh so it's it's an interesting difference in that regard in a sense perhaps we don't have as much direct power and because we're advising um the park parks and trails advises city council uh beyond that uh it still is like with anything that truly is uh a volunteer position you gotta have heart fart you know and and that sounds like you do so that's an important part for us any other questions uh george well no but i would just add to that i i think uh you know listening to your neighbors um they're the ones that tell me you know we need this or we need that or wouldn't it be nice if we had a dog park and so you bring up a dog park and somebody says oh no we can't do that here are the reasons that we can't do that so it's i then i go back to my neighbors and say well here are the reasons you know we can't do stuff like that so i think it's being a listener to your uh neighbors once people find out you're on the parks and trails uh commission um no other than that i don't have anything to do and then that's a very good comment uh an observation george because uh that's true uh every time they know a meeting's coming up the neighbors and even farther afield friends in the area and do make suggestions that really help us you know uh to know what's going on in these parks because we can't possibly uh always know everything about each park so uh thank you our difficulty right now is that uh george and i do not make a quorum there's it's a five-member uh commission and so we're going to uh get back to you with our decision after we do a couple more interviews and uh we thank you for your interest and consideration of uh joining us so thank you very much if you have any questions for us beyond that no just thank you for uh the opportunity to interview i i love the parks like i said and i just think we could do so much promoting ourselves and we have such a i just think it's amazing i just go out my door and i've got all these trails it's amazing you know you get to say hi to your neighbors and they're wonderful yeah so so thank you for the time thank you very much there we go okay uh that went really well um and then your next your next candidate is annie barris and she is ready to go are you ready for me to admit her i want to ask one question of you uh just because jennifer uh was currently on the planning commission i assume that she can't be on both actually there isn't anything in any of the bylaws that says she cannot be on both so yeah yeah so apparently it doesn't constitute a a conflict and so she certainly could okay interesting yeah yeah um because it was on annie is next and she did a lovely application really you know very detailed and that's always sort of nice it gives us a little more to go on but uh you already know our first candidate so we're gonna just go from there are we okay all right i will let her in thank you hello annie hi hello my name is judith tierhart i happen to be the chair of the parks and trails and i want to introduce you to the other people shown on your screen uh on the one my one corner is is george hepner and george has been on the parks and trails for what a couple of years now couple years yep yeah and uh but these are the only two that are with us tonight is myself and george the rest of the crew here carly johnson is uh our liaison she's on the city council and she goes back and forth with all of our suggestions and wants and needs and then brings the advice and decisions from our city council to back to the commission in the middle is is andy kegley and he's the director of all public works lisa danielson is on his side lisa is our city arborist and also works closely with andy on all the parks information and they are at every single one of our monthly meetings okay so and up in the corner courses is jennifer and upinski and she uh keeps us all going because she pretty much uh runs city hall for us is very good at her job so she's in charge of even our zoom meeting tonight so anyway what we have done in the past without covid would have been to bring you to one of our meetings and after the official meeting where you could at least see how we sort of operate in normal times uh then we would take you privately with the commissioners and um do an interview and so right now that's why you're here with the rest of us and uh like i say i i apologize it's summertime and that's why um some of our commissioners are are missing today uh with vacations and whatever is going on in their lives uh but so we won't be able to make uh a decision right on the spot but um we appreciate you taking time to to meet with us on this weird zoom thing and uh what we'll do is is george and i will ask you some standard questions that we pose to all applicants and and then answer any questions you have to okay yeah all right so first of all uh i'm gonna change to my page thank you again for jennifer for getting this all put together for us um simple question really but a big one why do you desire to be a parks and trails commissioner for the city of oak park heights well first of all thank you guys for having me it's so nice to um put some faces with actually a few names that i've been hearing about um just carly that's amazing that i've just been reading about the five yeah you've been putting together and then uh mary crea said you were up here and she said that you're amazing so it's nice to put some faces with names um i want to be appointed to the oak park heights commission because i want to get everyone outside it's truly something i believe in and i feel like this would be a good place to start and i want to challenge myself in different ways i feel like i don't challenge myself enough and i'm so nervous to even be in this interview but i something i'm really passionate about and i think i can bring that to the table thank you george yep i've got the next question for you could you describe a situation in which you worked as part of a team what role did you have and what went well in that group yeah there were so many examples um i've been having worked my since i was 15 years old i've always had worked really hard and so many places and i was always put in these positions where people trusted me to be a lead in i can say i'm trying to think of there's a lot of examples right now that are going through my head but uh down at the stillwater boats i worked there for about six years and i would be in charge of the events that happened and i would um in charge of the people and safety for weddings and all sorts of events and then as far as working in the early childhood area preschools i've been teaching um and in charge of staff and training and 10 kids [Music] um but i believe i've always been put in these positions because people i have i have the ability to take lead um i also have the ability to step back and listen and i think that's important to note as well i um i can listen and then where i know i need to need to lead i am able to step into that position if that makes sense yes it does well if you worked on the stillwater boats my son did that about 20 years ago and he said it was the most funny ever had he's an elementary school principal now and he says that's not nearly as much fun as it is working on the boats what's his name andy he was probably there before you but he was working for dickie anderson so i'm sure you had fun down there yeah it was a lot of fun i even i they put me in a lot of roles down there i remember one time for example there was a group of children coming on and i said okay i was in charge of the boat and i made sure i said everybody take the salt and peppers off the tables and dickie's like why i'm like well you don't want to find out because kids like to unscrew salt and pepper shakers and after that he really liked that i was able to think ahead and plan accordingly for that age group and after that he actually put me in the office um and that was that meant a lot to me because most people if you know only anderson's usually work in the office you know yeah oh that's that's a great answer now i have uh in what ways do you think you can make a contribution to the oak park heights parks and trails commission what can you add hope to contribute my positive attitude and hard work ethic i would with this passion that i have already for nature and the parks and rec and trails parks and trails i should say they i use them all the time i have a 20 month year old son and i just i'm just so passionate about being outside i'm at one of those parks every day of my life i promise you um but with that dedication i can work hard and go above and beyond and i like to make things work and i'm not i'm i do it because i'm passionate and i love it good thank you um yeah what what particular strengths do you have in any of the jobs that you've worked and what would you see as weaknesses uh that you might have that you want to develop and and grow well kind of like what i've mentioned so far is just i would say i've from what i hear back from bosses is that it's i'm positive and i like to make things work and that actually might be a weakness as well because i really try to think outside the box and get to the big picture and sometimes it just might not be able to happen and i have to understand that as well but i will do everything and think outside the box and be creative like i said first thank you thank you um what rewards do you expect to gain from your service at parks and trails i the experience would be unbelievable and just to have a valuable to be in a valuable seat on the board would i would be very proud of myself and um i guess i would just since i'm just so passionate about it i just would it would make me so happy to be a part of something that i believe in so much and to bring and i want to bring that adoration like to my community my communities i've grew up here it's always been huge to me and i want to be a part of that and share that love for it all right thank you for that um george i know you have annie's uh application in front of you you there might be something else that might catch your eye and support another question um otherwise no i i could um i was interested in learning what a nature-based teaching certificate was yeah so i just finished that actually a month ago and it's early childhood nature based teaching i already have my early childhood degree and i really want to focus on getting every child outside and i think that's where they grow and thrive and not in books that's just what i believe currently and i think with this covid a lot of schools are actually transitioning outside so i would like to i mean that's a whole other meeting that probably could have but um with that certification it would be i'm trying to keep making a sentence but there's a lot to say about that but i guess my next step i really want to have a nature based nature school nature-based nature school and it would be for um birth through eight and to work with children specifically outside in the parks okay thank you so much do you have any questions for us um so the only one that i'm kind of i have to be honest about that i'm a little worried about is that i really wanted to apply for the parks coordinator program in august and i'm wondering what that means is part of being on the commission as well if you're a part of the commission are you able to be on city working for the city um okay i can answer that question for you um so you can't be on the commission and be a summer park programmer at the same time so but you know if you do get chosen to be on the parks parks and trails commission and then you do get selected to be as a park summer program coordinator then you could just withdraw your seat uh from the parks and trails commission so i wouldn't let that discourage you from continuing to to for you know try to be on this board um you could withdraw your seat take that position and then at least you'd you'd still have that experience and could then you know maybe come back to the parks and trails commission at a future date and even so even if i were to like apply for the position and i were to get accepted i would still it would still be important to me to be involved with parks if you i mean if i were accepted yeah and and so i know you know gina she's the current parks and parks coordinator and she often is invited to this meeting everyone on this board knows her she comes to our meetings she lets us know what her programs are she gives us updates on attendance all that kind of thing so you would you know you would still be very active with this board right because i still as much as i would you know like that that's my dream job of course but i would love to i think they kind of go hand in hand and i would still love to be doing that but bringing even another being a part of the parks and bringing in other older communities if that's it or gotcha no matter what happens in the near future uh you're always welcome to attend meetings we we wish more citizens did of course colburn has changed that but you can even sign up jen isn't that true jennifer that uh to get the zoom address and all of that good stuff and and be here as a citizen a taxpayer you know i mean that's important for us to know what's happening beyond our sort of uh somewhat rules related sphere that we have to go so do don't push us aside anyway we'd love to have you come and share your ideas and i was wondering did you guys have a meeting before me no oh okay because i know it's the third monday so yeah yes but we're going to continue with one after you but right now we don't have a quorum with just george and i here so it's going to be a very short kind of thing uh go over a couple little things and and be out of here right away okay because we can't make any decisions and vote on anything right without yeah yeah i understand that generally speaking and and there's a few times during the year middle of winter for one is there's not a lot for us to do at every 30 days you know kind of thing and so once in a while it'll be called as like once or twice a year perhaps that we don't even meet on the monday night because it's um just nothing that really needs to be discussed and moved on that quickly especially like i say in the winter months you know andy and lisa stay really busy and so so does jennifer and carly but the rest of us get to back away a little bit but you're always welcome to come and living here and enjoying the parks we need that kind of recommendations even that come from people who are there more often than we can be right that's what that's what's so important to me i would love to listen to the community and i love hearing and listening i guess to hear whatever you have to say um so and to get involved with the meetings as well i just asked for a zoom code or is that online because i couldn't find them online okay yeah so if you go to cityvaultparkheights.com and then if you hover over the uh i think it's called government tab and then you'll see agendas in minutes and then you'll have yeah parks and trails commission um and then you'll see the agenda on there and there is a link on there otherwise annie you have my email address and i'm the one that creates the zoom link and creates the agendas for the parks and trails commission and i can just put you if you want me to i can just put you on a list that i just said i would love that i can do that let me make a note of that and i'll just put you on a list to send that out every month so you don't even have to go and look for it thank you so much some reason i don't know if it's my computer but when i was clicking on it it would say download but then when i tried to open it oh nothing would happen so i'm not sure okay i'll look at that one thing to note is um the parks and trails commission actually hopes to start meeting in person starting actually with their next meeting so we yeah so i will definitely still keep your email on the list and send you the agendas but we might not have a zoom link if we if everyone's feeling comfortable and it works out that we meet in person then we'll just have our meetings here at city hall okay hooray yeah yeah it's really exciting for you guys okay thank you annie thank you have a good night bye okay we're back ah jennifer is there anything else we can accomplish or yeah jude if you can go ahead and have your your department and commission liaison reports because you don't need to take any action on anything there um otherwise that that would be it the rest of the stuff on the agenda were just placeholders in case you had any action you wanted to take and since we can't take any action then you would just go ahead and adjourn the meeting um okay people can do that uh so and we really don't even have to approve the minutes of the last meeting we'll just do that in sequence next time right i will bring them back for your next meeting and you can wonderful easy easy easy so um let's have our liaison reports and first one is from lisa oh yeah just a quick update on the prairie maintenance i guess for tonight um on june 2nd minnesota native landscapes was able to do the first of the three week control visits at swagger in bellevue um the prairie sites there so yeah that's it that i have thank you and andy public works director yep i really have nothing significant to report other than what we discussed at the uh the walkthrough event per use i will compile those notes and put them in a spreadsheet format for you to discuss and rank at a future meeting for next month yeah and carly i have a couple things to kind of get the announcements on first is the community garden we i had eric send out a picture of the sign we're going to get that installed i think right now we're just going to put it on some posts with some concrete so it's movable depending on where we ultimately put that community garden if we keep it there and move it we've had three people sign up for community garden beds only one person is planted so far and then the community planter that at city hall is full it has basil and jalapenos as well as cherry tomatoes and that's been going pretty well other than that the walk run has been pretty successful we've had eight people do both the 5k and 10k and submit photos because of the extreme heat the past week we did extend that all the way to the end of the month and hopefully we'll have more people yeah well that's a real wise thing to do so good for you for thinking of it any other questions or concerns otherwise uh we're going to look forward to uh talking to the rest of our group about the the interviews we did tonight and they could to watch a look at them and and we'll go next time so informational is get to know the parks virtual walk one event as you said was extended through june 30th that's good to know next meeting of this group is monday july 19th at 6 00 pm and it is still a a possibility that we will be able to meet in person by that meeting uh and who does make that decision jim excuse me the city council makes that decision and i believe they already have made that decision is that am i right carly that that was a motion that was made at your last meeting um okay so unless something crazy happens we will be here in person and if something changes i will definitely let you know and that that something would probably be an outbreak or someone gets sick or something like that but barring any of that we'll see everybody here in person at city council chambers it's going to feel exciting different strange but it'll be good absolutely just want to thank you for always keeping this thing going the zoom has been challenging at times but you've made it so easy to to manage especially for us we the seniors who aren't as up on all the technology and that kind of thing you've been great about the whole thing made it made it seem easy for us well you've made it look easy you guys have done a great job we got through it and there's an upcoming council meeting tuesday june 22nd at 6 pm city hall and zoom for that one is how it's on here uh but that's just well that's today we're doing a hybrid model tomorrow so i think the mayor and i will be remote and then the rest of the council members will be in the chambers for the meeting interesting ah good chance all right uh do i hear a motion to adjourn adjourn it's been motioned and passed we are in adjournment thank you all and well um i will certainly pass along this recording to the rest of the commission so they have an opportunity to listen to our applicants and so you can have a nice discussion at your next meeting and maybe what what i'll do is we'll set aside just a few minutes before we start the meeting maybe for a little catch-up and chatting and then okay okay good idea okay sounds great well we'll see you next month thank you all of you recording stopped [Music] [Music] you