[Music] Good evening everyone. I want to call the June 18th Parks and Recreation Commission meeting to order. First thing is roll call. Commissioner Matson here. Commissioner Morhead here. Commissioner Tyson here. Commissioner Hardina here. Commissioner Gary present. Commissioner Lmark here. And Commissioner Ecker is out. He did let us know in advance. All right, everybody. Please join us in this pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America stand. Uh, next item, approve the agenda. Anybody have an addition or correction? Otherwise, look for a motion. So moved. Second. Moved and second. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Okay, open forum. We do have one speaker, Barb Prible. I'm sorry if I mispronounced your name. No, you were perfect. So, welcome. Thank you for coming out. Thank you. Um, hi, my name is Barb Prible. My address is 21930 Harrow Avenue North. Um, I just wanted to come tonight and bring up something for consideration uh by the Park and Recreation Commission. Um, it's actually something that's been near and dear to my heart for four years now. Um, back in 2021, we were putting up the um the clubhouse at Castlewood. And at that time, I was speaking to the city council about my uh enthusiasm for the clubhouse. And I said, gee, if we put the new house clubhouse up, it would be wonderful if we could name it in honor of longtime resident and community leader Jim Trudeau. And at that time, the council was receptive to the idea. Of course, the, you know, the the clubhouse took a fair amount of time to to get built, but I stayed in touch with then city administrator, uh, Patrick Casey on the issue, and he said, you know, I'd really like to kind of bring it up to the park and recreation commission once we get the building a little bit further along. And then that took a little bit longer. And then I reached out again, and he said, well, you know, we we still want to bring it through the park and recreation commission. But then, as you all know, there was no park and recreation commission for about two and a half years. So, here I am four years later, and I just don't really want to let this die because I I I'm assuming most of you on the commission here are familiar with Jim, but uh if you're not, uh he uh is a long was a very revered resident of our community. Um he was the founder in 1977 of what is now the Lake Center for Youth and Families, which is a diversion and youth enrichment organization in Forest Lake. Uh he was chief of police here in Forest Lake for 12 years, Washington County Sheriff for 15 years. Uh numerous accolades throughout our community, including 2013 community volunteer of the year by the Forest Lake Area Chamber of Commerce. And everybody loves Jim. Uh, so you're thinking, okay, police chief, Washington County Sheriff, what's what's that got to do with the golf course? Well, Jim's grandfather owned the golf course way back in the 1920s, and he ran it as a golf course until the war hit. And then they raised turkeys out there. And Jim is quoted in an article in the St. Paul paper and various other places talking about his youth growing up on the course and running around the course and chasing turkeys and and he just loved that course. So what happened is when the course got in some trouble a number of years ago when we decided to go out for a request for a proposal and Forsome wasn't around back then um we didn't really get much response until Jim popped in with a buddy of his at the time and committed to running the course. And for those of you who may not know he did run the course for uh five years until his health deteriorated and then he's his protege kind of took over. But in those five years, he put in $300,000 of his own money and he made numerous improvements to the course and he never took a dime in salary. And as he said, he did it all for the community and to give back to the community and the course that he loved. So I would just love nothing more than to see him receive some sort of tribute for his dedication to our community and his love of the golf course. Um we did um Mayor then Mayor Bane and I both did reach out. I know his Jim's wife Carol and talked with her. She talked with the family. They were amendable to it. And uh Mayor Bane uh works with uh Jim and Carol's daughter Christy. She talked with her. They were amendable to it. We reached out with them again a couple years later just because there was some controversy in the community over the funding for the clubhouse. and they still were were honored that we were thinking of doing that. So, um just to wrap up quickly then at that time in 2021 I did put a petition in the clubhouse and it was signed by 92 people. About 50% of those were forest like residents who said, "Yeah, we we'd love to see this clubhouse be named." I'm hoping somewhere in the files in Patrick Casey's files or a Castlewood file that petition is still there. I did forward the blank copy as well as some correspondence that Patrick Casey and I had to Kyle earlier today. So, just would again love to love to see if that would be something that you might consider. Um and um thank you for your time. Thank you. Uh next item, approve. Well, we don't comment, do we? meeting certain. Yep. Okay. Certainly be an item we can talk about at some point. So, okay. Uh number six, approve meeting minutes from May 21st, 2025 meeting. I have a motion or anybody have any additions or corrections? So, move. I second. Okay. Moved by Tim, second by Melissa. All in favor? I I All right. uh staff report Castlewood Golf Course Operations, Kyle, Dave, and the Forsome Group. So Henry with Forsome is here to just do some general updates, uh course programs. Um Henry's in charge of I believe in charge of all the maintenance out there and again the programming and the operations of the place. So he's got uh a pretty good overview of updates. And then we also have a few more items um obviously related to some uh capital improvement projects as well and then um to kind of highlight on uh the agreement with forsome that is due up at the end of at the end of this year. So I am going to share the screen so behind your computer and your display screens what Henry is kind of talking about will pop up here in just a minute and otherwise we'll turn it over to Henry. All right. Well, hi there everybody. Yeah, appreciate that. Um, just a little background about me. I've been the manager now there. This is, um, little over two years, but kind of the third golf season. So, really starting to understand and kind of get to know the community more and more as I've been here. Um, but just kind of a few things to note that you'll see here in the summary. Um, kind of the biggest highlight I'd say is obviously the uh, the increase in our net income from 2023 to 2024. Um, as well as we've kind of maintained that momentum here into 2025 and rounds have also been on the rise. Um, which is especially nice after a wet spring like uh last spring and then it was it was pretty nice until the last couple weeks here when it comes to uh moisture. Um uh but moving on, another highlight obviously is the new clubhouse or you know two years old now. Um kind of the big thing with that is being able to maintain operations year round. So, um, we run simulators, um, out of the clubhouse all winter long, and with that comes, um, you know, parties for different groups around here, uh, whether it's youth sporting teams, uh, holding their end of season parties and things like that. Um, and then kind of moving on, I'll just kind of jump right into the net income here. Um, so kind of like we just or like I already brought up, um, 2023 is what I'm going to really highlight on as well as 2024 just because those are the years I was here. Um, but when it comes to that, 2023, um, obviously you see that that was the, uh, lowest net income we had. That was the first summer with the clubhouse. Um, there were a lot of, you know, uh, expenses and things like that that came with it. But then kind of after we got our feet under us, you guys can see how last year went. um you know having our highest mark ever uh which we're very proud of and like I said we're uh continuing that momentum which is nice and then if we uh scroll down here you'll see with the gross revenue uh that obviously doesn't have any expenses or anything like that but you can see that through May here we are up um 12,000 compared to that and we'll touch on the uh profit and loss statement a little later on that'll show how we are doing um but you can see steadily growing um kind of some big things with that just co really helped the uh the golf boom we call it that uh really let people know that they could do it and it was one of the only things people could do and um that momentum has kind of continued. So that's been nice to see. Um like I touched on with the rounds as well. You can see they've been on the rise since 2022 2023. Um and that's especially nice to see especially like I said after last year with how wet it was. Um it was pretty tough. we were walking only for quite a bit during that time, but um we kept people coming out. Um and then we have also gotten lucky here the last two springs. They've been early springs, so we've been able to open, you know, last year in 24 we opened, I think it was like February 26th, which is pretty crazy. Um and then this year it was, I think, March 1st or March 2nd. Uh like I said, it's been a drier spring, so that's helped. Um moving on from that, kind of going into the programming and membership. Um, we have all these leagues here. Uh, they've been going great. The coup's league has been great. That's been steadily climbing here. When I started, we started with, I believe it was 14 teams, and then we had 18 last year and we're up to 20 this year. So, uh, that keeps our Monday nights full. Um, and then the kind of my favorites here, the Tuesday juniors and the Wednesday juniors. Um, I just want to say growing up, um, I wasn't able to golf just as I couldn't afford it, um, at my small town, you know, city golf course. So, being able to work for this course and work with the community is very rewarding. So, um, I appreciate you guys giving us the ability to do that. Um, and working with Community Ed on that has been great. They're a great partner and they partner with us on other things. they let us um you know show our other leagues in the in their uh mailers and they're going to have our uh winter sim leagues in the mailers as well. So, we're hoping that'll help grow that because that's kind of the next thing I'd like to touch on. Um when it comes to the facility, like I already touched on with the uh birthday party packs, full clubhouse reservations, the winter sim golf leagues. Uh that's the big thing with the new clubhouse. Obviously, on a night like tonight when I'm running league, they had somewhere to go. They could get out of the rain, which is very nice. and they had, you know, indoor plumbing and whatnot. So, that's nice. But then it does keep us going all throughout the winter. Um, which is kind of the big thing. And the nice thing with that is we don't start in a hole every year or at least not as big of a hole as we used to. You know what I mean? When it comes to staffing, getting the course ready, that all takes time and money, obviously staffing. Um, but when we're not, you know, we've been making money all winter or trying to, um, that really helps us. Um, like I touched on with the strategic or with the partnerships, community ed is the big one. Um, like I said, uh, run our juniors programs through them as well as they show the, uh, they show the rest of our leagues, which has helped. We've seen an increase in the leagues as well. I think we have an additional team in each of our men's leagues, and I, uh, I know the women's league added a team as well. Um, and then also this year, new to Castlewood, uh, we partnered with Minnesota Golf Association and Youth on Course, which again, I think is a really cool program that they have. Uh, essentially what it is, they pay a membership to the MGA. Um, I believe it's between$1red and $150. And what that gets them is $5 greens fees at Castle Fes. Geez, $5 green fees at Castlewood um, all year long, as well as any other participating golf course throughout Minnesota. So, that's a that's a uh, very cool way for uh, kids to get a chance to play. Like I said, especially because golf is not always the most accessible or affordable um thing for the for the youth specifically. Um and then kind of rolling off that with the scholarship initiatives. Um we um the Steve Bister Memorial Foundation uh run by Kathy and Ron. They've been great to work with. Um last year we had three participants in the junior program fully funded um by the scholarships given by them. Peter Stles, Penny Stles, and Joseph Song. And then this year they also made another donation. So, uh, we're working through figuring out who's going to get those scholarships as well as some other ways we might be able to use that money to, um, get the underserved youth on the course as well. Um, then just kind of going here for some of the challenges we face. Um, one of the main things is our irrigation system. Um, it's kind of duct tape and bubble gum together. That's kind of how we get through with it. Um the main things with it, we have um like it says here, we have over 17 individual fairway heads and uh some greens that we have to water by hand, which probably doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but that's all things that have to be done during the day. Um so that takes extra time and we have someone who one of their main jobs is just to go on turn on sprinkler heads because uh they're not going off at night. Um, and the big thing with that is you lose a lot of it takes double the time to water during the day. So, we're using more water than we probably need to be. Um, and it just it's kind of not the way things should be run. Um, so upgrading that would help, you know, reduce labor, improve consistency, and just enhance the course conditions overall. Um, moving off of that as well, the cart paths we have, uh, we do what we can with them, um, but they're obviously limited pavement and then we have all clay soil over there. So, um, as we've learned over the last few few days as well, it just holds all of the water. Um, so over the weekend, we had a great weekend luckily with Father's Day. It's always one of the best days of the year. Uh, but the course did did take some damage from that just because can't not have carts on a day like that and that's going to tear up the course. And kind of like I highlight down here, no carts equals no play. So if I wouldn't have had carts, we wouldn't have had anyone out and missed out on one of our best days. So if we were able to expand cart paths, um, that would just make it so, you know, if we have a wet spring or anything like that, um, we're not uh we're not losing all the play that we could have. Um, moving off of that, um, some things that we're planning, hoping to maybe get accomplished. Um, we're going to work with Dunik. I'm not sure if you guys want to touch on this at all, but, um, main thing kind of going off of all that would be the drainage, specifically on our greens, number three and number five, as you guys can see here. Um, like for instance, we haven't been able to mow it since Thursday now because of all the rain we've got. So, those greens are pretty tough. And I can tell you because I was spraying them this morning. Um, disease-wise, they that's also what makes them get disease. When they get all this moisture, they can't get mowed and then it gets hot like this. Um, it makes for pretty tough playing conditions and it's pretty hard to maintain. So, adding in the drainage that we're looking to um would really help with that. It'd be able to make it so we can consistently mow it even when it rains like this. Um, and again, when it comes to disease and playability, it's really going to improve that. Then also, we're looking to expand six green and kind of reshape it. Um, main thing with this, this is our smallest green and it suffers the most wear and tear because of that. To get really into the weeds with it, essentially, we can't put holes in very many spots on that green. So, it gets very beat up because it's the same two, three spots that are always getting hit with golf balls. Um, and if we were able to expand that, it would just improve the health of that green and kind of the the course quality overall. Um, then kind of moving on, if there are any specific questions here with the um, P&L, happy to answer that. Um, but the main thing you can see we are up um a little over 8,000 um compared to last May, which is great, especially because we've had some irrigation issues and things like that we have had to uh that we've had to address, but we're still doing pretty well. Um, and yeah, those are kind of the the main things I've got here. Is there anything else you guys want to add or anything else I need to address? I had a question because I was reading through all of this and I couldn't tell what what did the simulators make because I see the rounds but you don't consider that as a part of the simulators. So what correct simulators themselves? So maybe close enough at this. Yeah. So if you can I zoom in here? Yeah. It's not listed out on as exact simulators. with another. So if you see here, can you all see that? This facility rental, sorry, wrong one. Facility rental. This is going to be almost entirely all simulator um revenue. So um it might not be exact because for instance like a full clubhouse reservation, if someone books that, they may not use the simulators, but they reserve those simulators if they have a full clubhouse reservation. So this is what you're going to be seeing when it comes to these simulators. Perfect. Like I said, that that's um you know, that helps us not start in that in a huge hole because we have that revenue right there throughout the winter. I had a small question about the parties that are booked there. Uh are they all charged rental? Are there some nonprofits that maybe aren't? How do you arrange the rental fees for parties? Uh so far it's been all all charged. Uh we haven't had any profits or anything like that, reach out or be interested. And I guess I'm not 100% sure how we would necessarily go about that. But that's something we'd obviously love to look into. But rent is coming in. So that's Yes. Yeah. So the Go ahead. I was just going to add that. So they they do have a set fee schedule that's approved by council and um that fee schedule doesn't account for like nonprofit status or anything like that. So it is across the board. So even if a nonprofit were to call the rent, they would pay that fee schedule just just a year, you know. And I think that's also a big spot that Henry and Kyle have talked about, too, is I don't I don't think a lot of people are aware that this is a venue where you can have a birthday party and rent some simulators and have a bunch of girls or boys come in there and have a birthday party with, you know, pizza and pop and play simulator for three hours. I think that's something the city needs to to do a better job of promoting that there's an activity here year round where you know it's your bowling alleys or whatever that people think of. But that's another pretty cool event that you could have with with families that it's it's probably underutilized that that's out there that we have to offer in the city. So there's two items before us to think about. The first is uh giving staff approve uh motion to negotiate a new agreement with forsome and the second one is to uh recommend council's approving addressing drainage issues at Castlewood up to $80,000 and question I have is that just addressing the two greens or the three greens that you brought or is it also address the irrigation? That does not it's just for the drainage. Yeah, it's just going to be those those few drainage items that he he talked about here. The irrigation will be that's a whole separate separated project. Unplugged it. Has there been estimates done on what how much it would cost to the irrigation up this stuff? The irrigation or the drainage? Irrigation. The irrigation. That would have been Dave. Did you guys probably I'm trying to pull up the CIP here. Thanks, Dave. So, this is what has been submitted to city council for the 10ear CIP. Um, $80,000 is for these T- box refurbishments. It's estimated two years ago was estimated about $700,000. It's probably about $900,000 now for irrigation. And then uh to Henry's point, that uh cart path paving is out in 2030 for $200,000. There is a refurbishment for their actual maintenance building that's floating, I think, in 2036. Um that pole barn that's out there that's falling apart and that may slide sooner than later. Um a lot of it's this golf course wasn't making any money. It was losing money for a lot of years. now that it's making money that revenue gets dedicated to get dumped back into the course and and and also if the parks commission and the city wants to keep it going that you know we have to you know put some investments on it too. So irrigation is original and I don't Karen probably knows more than I do but I mean when that was put in it's probably the 80s right? It's probably 40ome years old and I'm so glad to see that it's still being maintained from Jim Trudeau and our association with this and we'd be very happy to recommend to go into a negotiation with the contract. Um like I said, you saw my enthusiasm for Jim Trudeau. He did a spectacular job out there and we were always so pleased early on that you took it and I'm so glad to see that's making money. For years we had to pay somebody in because there was an agreement that you had to make so much or the city had to put in. So I just think the whole about the positive and like Fenway, it's a very special place in our community that brings in a lot of people. So, I don't know what the rest feel, but I'd be very much in favor. I love seeing all the youth coming in and out of there. There are that's what warms my heart is, you know, I like to go and play myself and the the course is great. The similators are awesome. That clubhouse is we got to get together in there sometime with our groups. Um, but I would definitely be in favor So why the first item is to make a motion to city staff to negotiate a new agreement with Forsome Golf Management Group LLC. Would you want to make that motion, Karen? So Karen makes a motion. Second. All right. Second by Tim. Any other discussion on that one? Keep up the good work. All in favor? I. That one passes. And then the second one we've been talking about is make a motion to recommend council's approval of addressing drainage issues at Castlewood Golf Course with costs up to $80,000. So move. Tim moves. I second. Sue seconds. Any more discussion? All in favor? I. Great. Thank you. Great work out there. Appreciate it. Thank you all. Can I ask a question about falling apart? What was that? Something about the pole barn falling apart. The equipment one. It's an it's an original pole barn, right? There's dirt floors and and not heated and for them to run run their operation out there, it's it's kind of dicey, right? So, it's we're trying to splice everything into where we can afford stuff. It may be sooner or later. I think Henry left no, but I think Henry would say that the irrigation is probably more important than the maintenance building right now. I mean, if the course is not green and playable, that's more important than that, but it's also a large sum. And that's something that as a commission we'll be talking about later on. I mean, it just I brought this up just to show you that that's kind of going to be on the table for 20 2026. I mean, it's it's budgeted and how our fees are slated, it's it can be paid for, but it's also a big chunk of money that it goes to something. So, I would just say we'll stay tuned. We'll we'll be talking about that later in the year, probably July or August for recommendation to council to say yes, we recommend that you keep this in the budget or no, we don't. So, I think that's that's kind of I would say July or August is where we're going to want your feedback on that. So, just kind of think about that. Keep that in the back of your mind of of something that we're going to have to make that recommendation to council one way or the other. That party room. What was that? Advertise that party room. Let's get that money. Yep. Is it Do they have their own well for the water, Dave, or is it city water? Yeah. So, it it runs on storm water. So, it it grabs a lot of money a lot of water off of the course and from the other side of 97. So they take storm storm pond water, but then when they can't keep up, there's a well there that'll back fill. So it's kind of like Fenway. Fenway runs off of recycled water until there's not enough water in the pond and then they we kick the well on to fill it. So part of this rehab is actually rehabbing the well too and the pumping station and then all just all the irrigation. So, uh, that 900,000 is for about a 100redyear irrigation system would be all HDP. It would be top of line and all of us and then the next ones of us and the next ones after that would never have to worry about it. So, I mean, it'd be that it'd be an investment, but it also be something that would be a long-term investment if that's what, you know, the city wants that golf course here. You mentioned there'd be some savings in water and labor. That might be a good number to have. Consider this. That adds up over 20 30 years. Yep. Especially uh in city water what what that toll is. Uh we can get those numbers of what they actually run. I know we have those numbers pretty good on Fenway of what we run annually, but I know we have a meter out there of how much they use, but you could calculate it that into if you were hooked to the city system, how much that would be. So we can get those that'll like I said it'll be either July or August where we'll have a lot better presentation for you on that. Okay. Thank you. Y All right. The next item is uh staff report on cooling camp CIP project. So, um Dave can confirm, but that was an approved by council capital improvement project that was approved in the budget. And uh so then we reached out to get quotes for the fencing projects that uh that were to be done. And Tai and Jeremy are are here tonight. They are with Force Lake Baseball Association. They're heavy users at Cooland Camp Park. and uh the baseball association over the last several years have has put their own um you know raise dollars into into the facility. So um we worked staff worked with baseball to find out maybe some wish list items on fencing and uh so we put the quotes together for that and we presented to you guys the the low bid quote on that. Um, and again, just kind of the note that, you know, the 100,000's approved in the capital improvement plan, but just wanting to move forward with the the the folks that gave us the quote and the Deutschander one, like I said, was low bid. So, I don't know if Jeremy or or Ty if you guys have anything to add to that or kind of the timeline of when you guys what you guys have done and how much you've put into those fences or if you guys just want to hang tight. if you if you want to just grab the podium, put put you really on the spot and welcome. Thank you. Um Jeremy Trap. I'm the vice president of FLBA. Um I've been on the board for oh it's probably my ninth year. I don't have any kids in the program. Um they kind of stopped playing baseball when I joined the board. So uh anyway, cooling camp has been kind of a pet project of ours for as long as I've been on the board. Um, we put fences on, uh, cooling camp three. We did dugouts on three. Um, we put a fence on one and cooling camp one has got a fence. Um, this last year we did a new shed uh, 12 x 16 for storing um, you know, equipment out there like chalk and clay and stuff like that and bases and whatever else on drags and stuff. So, uh, I would say over the last, like I said, as long as I've been on the board, I mean, we've I would say at least $40,000 that we've dumped, I mean, put into the the park to make it better. So, this capital improvement, if it, you know, everything goes right, we're just uh very thankful that uh it got approved. So, we just want we come here tonight to say thank you. Thank you. Thanks for your work out there. You bet. So, this is kind of a a two-pronged deal. So, last year, uh, this commission wasn't here, but, um, Fenway Fields got about $200,000 worth of upgrades. Uh, redid all five of the infields. They regraded them. Um, lowered all the fences, put new safety caps on all the top of them, and then top dressed and airrated all the multi-use fields for better drainage. And this was kind of the second step. To his point, they've been FOBA has been very patient. They've been asking for this for probably five, six years at least of getting fences in and that and we we've had this plugged into that cap. So this $80,000 we'll put fences around two fields. We'll uh increase the back stops and then we'll put uh dugouts in. So right now they're just kind of sitting on some some metal benches. This will actually be like a dugout, a chain link fence with a rooftop on top. Um just I mean when other teams come into the city right you just you want other kids to say I'm playing a nice field and not that it's not a good field but it's just it's it it needs these upgrades. It's one of these things and um it seems like a lot of money but it's a it's a really good investment in the fields um with you sports. So I think I I really appreciate their patience with us. I keep telling them just wait, just wait. We're going to try to get this in here. And um so we finally have kind of slotted that in where this work could be done. So I think it's a a great project to help get these fields a little bit nicer um and and just something to take pride in for for when we have other cities coming in to play these play uh traveling sports. Just one comment. I go back longer than nine years. And our friend Al Al Hogy, you probably maybe heard of him, remember him fondly. You go way, you put in a lot more money than that if you go back to the history when Fenway was coming along and I sat through many meetings when people were a little upset and they'd say, El would say how much money they put in out there. So be good research for you to have back further. It's more money, but it's good for us to know these things because people will question and that's I think it's going to be safer and again bring in more people and that's what we want for lake to grow. Okay. Staff has a recommendation on a motion. Would anybody like to make it or is there more questions? Motion for the 80,000. The motion is to recommend the city council approve the bid from Deutschelander Fencing LLC and authorize the cooling camp baseball fields fence improvements with a total project cost not to exceed 100,000. Tim moves. Second it. Karen seconds or discussion? All in favor? Pass. On to the council. So yeah, just to kind of give you guys a little look. So what we'll do is we'll reach out to that um the Deutslander and then I believe FLA is going to be done down at Cooland Camp and sometime mid July or something towards the end of July. So then that work will will get done as soon as we button it up and hopefully have it all wrapped up this fall going into going into winter. So then when they come back in the spring it'll be ready to go. And just so you're aware that the Deutsch lander is at 86,000, not to exceed 100 is public works the contractor won't put the tin the tin sheds over top of the dugouts. They don't want to be responsible for that. So then public works will buy those materials and then put them on. So that's why it's that number doesn't equal up. So it's we'll buy the material and public works just without staff time will just buy the material and put those tops on. We've looked at two different contractors and neither one of them wanted to have that part of their bid. So I I just think it's Yeah. I think it's typical. It's just not what they do, right? It's not not offense. It's something different. So they don't want to have to deal with that, which that's what we do, right? Public works will do that. It's not a big deal, but that's why those two numbers are a little different. Just so you it clarifies that why you know that was a little difference. Thank you. Thanks, Dave. All right. Next item is accepting memorial policy discussion. Kyle, you leading that? Yeah. So, um, as as many of you are aware, when we we talked leading into this commission, we had just, uh, the idea of trying to put some policies together to, um, ease instead of constantly bringing things to to the commission or council um, for one by one approvals. There's a lot of generic um, you know, requests that come in that can, you know, be easily taken care of by staff just following the guidelines provided by the policy. So, uh, we we did some research on some, you know, uh, local city policies, you know, surrounding areas and tried to, um, you know, pick, you know, a more more basic, um, minimal one and then maybe something uh, a little bit larger and more options and more price points for families that uh, like I said, if they can't uh, they don't want to do a tree or can't afford something, there's a lot of options. So, we we tried to do two, you know, kind of different policies to look over and and choose from. And really, it's um, you know, up to up to the commission to to look into what what we'd like to do and what we'd like to recommend to to city, but to the council. Just it's nice. Gives staff clear direction. Um, and it also provides some clear direction for community members that are maybe looking to do some sort of donation. Um this this is kind of the start of diving into some policies that we're trying to put together and this would become a part of you know a big uh parks and wreck policy handbook if you will. So it' be something that we'll we'll put out there. It's going to have you know kind of a glossery index of where it lies and um and then again people can just if they're interested they can look at it and we have clear direction on on how we handle things. So, just looking for commission feedback on what we'd like to to recommend up to to city council to um set as the memorial don donation policy. You want to maybe walk through the two options, Kyle? Just so option A is just going to be the more um more options, right? It's going to give families uh more than just a tree or a plaque. Um again, the whole idea is to provide very clear direction on how does it work upfront about pricing and insulation requirements, maintenance requirements. Um and again, just really trying to give people more um more ideas around what they what they might want to bring to to parks um for donations. Um really a a lot of the body is just trying to you know again give clear direction on what the steps are going to be. Um again we don't have any people call up and they ask how much we don't know but this just kind of provides that um really trying to make it clear that the donations will will become city property and and how the maintenance works. with an understanding that uh once they make that donation, you know, there's going to probably be if it's a bench, there's a timeline on it and uh and then once that timeline comes up, it's it's uh you know um clear that how we're going to handle that. The uh second option B again is just really straightforward. It's going to be just a tree tree and plaque I think is what the what really it it promotes. Um, it kind of leaves us a little bit more vague and um, like I said, just kind of more just here's your your options and here we go. Um, not sure if you guys have any specifics on on what you're looking at or maybe what you want information on as far as items go or if you have questions about if this is all that's included. Um, the list is kind of just a guideline around what what could be questions for Kyle or Dave comments. Will it be in the handbook that say I want to have a tree? That tree dies in a year. Is that going to be covered that it's not going to be a longlasting tree? I mean, is the maintenance been good around the tree? Is it the weather? What is it? But Yep. So in that in that one of them it says the city shall responsible for tree care and replace damage dying donations for up to five years of the data planning you know so we're trying to cover a bunch of that stuff. I think the biggest thing we're trying to get away from is if somebody wants to donate a park bench at Lakeside and for a lot of years we just buy a plaque for them and then they we screwed a plaque onto a bench. They didn't buy the bench. They paid $50 for a plaque. And then now we have a I mean benches are about $2,000, right? So now we have a plaque on a bench that is rusted out and then what do we do with it now? So I think a lot of this with trees or benches or any of this stuff, we have to put a a timeline on it, right? And say if you donate this, it's a 10ear span. and and maybe somewhere in there you can say you get the first chance first right of refusal if 10 years is up if you want to uh re-up that next 10 years we'll give you that opportunity but otherwise you know then it may get replaced but that's a problem we're running into with a lot of this is we have plaques around trees that are you know you know rusted out and we have benches that have benches that are rusted but we have a new plaque on it and you You know, and to Kyle's point, people call and say, "Can I donate a tree? Can I do this?" And we don't have a policy on that. It would be nice that we can say Lakeside, we can put 10 more trees in there. All right? And then after that, we can't put any more trees in there because we also don't we want to have green space there, but there's 14 spots at Chilling and there's 23 spots at uh Somefield. And I mean, I think we can get a policy that would be our next step of of giving those locations or there's 300 spots at Castlewood for trees. You know, there's all these these spots. So, without a policy, I don't I don't think we can go to that next step. And it's it's tough to Yeah. You know, to to direct people. I think Tim and I can assure you that it is tough because conversations came up a lot about the benches that, you know, he had one for grandma and Nothing was ever said that they're going to have to replace a $2,000 bench if they want the plaque to continue. Yeah. And that's just not fair to punish somebody who's been on that bench for so long. The other discussion that came up was how many benches do the city does the city provide? Because certainly the city should provide some benches. So again, in in the uh lookbook that you're going to be having, I don't know how you cover that. I mean, if you think you've got enough benches. Now, for instance, um belts, people are calling me about there's no benches by the pickle ball and the hemps. Are there going to be benches there? Will the city put them there? Are you going to wait for someone to want to put a bench there? These are all great questions, Karen. That's why we're having this discussion, right? But I I think to your point too with you know people with the plaques on there. The point of that is it's it's a donation but it's also making sure that bench is there. Right. So the problem is are you getting that weird spot is that there's a plaque on there and the bench has failed. So you know the the goal of this is saying okay if you want to donate a bench it's a 10year bench and it's $2,000. So you're paying if you want that memorialize that's fine. And then that's that you're going to take care of that bench. You're basically taking care of that bench for the next 10 years. You know, you're sponsoring that bench. The problem is if you put a plaque on it and the bench fails, then then what do you do? Is is do you replace the bench and then put the plaque back on it even though they didn't they paid $50 for the plaque and didn't really memorialize the bench. Is that part of you would have a a catalog, if you will, of approved items that that would last for the 10 years so that you don't have somebody, you know, build a bench, let's say. Correct. But just like just like a tree, like you'll put a you know, you can either typically we don't most people don't like to put a a plaque on the thing. They'll put like a leather band across the tree, right? And say it's been donated by this. And after so many years, if it falls off, it falls off, right? That's that's part of what it is. But a bench is for 10 years. it's the city will maintain that or we pick these timelines, right? There might be maybe it's 15 years, right? Or I think that's what our feedback is is you want us to find specific timelines on this, you know, what what do you want us to to to pick for these these numbers? Um, and just like I said, then it'll expand out to, okay, well, we have 20 parks around the city. We should probably start labeling where all these trees can go and then um what types of trees we should have and what kind of benches to Karen's point of there's probably three spots at Belts Park that are great for benches. You know, we can put them on for donation if somebody would like to to dedicate those benches. So, we just don't want to get ahead ahead of ourel and start putting stuff in and then getting a plaque to put on a bench that we put in and then it gets weird that we don't it's dedicated but it's not dedicated and Lakeside is the worst with that, right? We have a lot of plaques on benches that we just bought a plaque from name your contractor that just paid for the plaque and we legged it onto a bench and it's they really didn't dedicate the bench. They just put a plaque on a bench. You have a lot of people wanting these. What was that? You have a lot of people wanting these. I mean, do you have a We get We get a number. We get a number. And I think if you we advertised it, I mean, it's more just like to the simulators at Castwood, right? If if you had it on the website or you put it out on Facebook of we had a if we get a policy set and we get a list of all the stuff available, I think you're going to get a good number of people that will want to do this. It's just we don't advertise it. We don't have a policy. So, We actually don't want to advertise it because we don't have a policy and we don't we don't know what to do with the policy is obvious need to hold that in and then that way you could say these are the things available for memorials and I you might be able to offset some costs that go into city and park planning whenever you're not you know having to put in 10 benches because five of them were donated. Yep. So what's the life expecty with longest use of a bench. I mean, I think the most most times we see is 10 years. I I mean, Lakeside is you're at 15 years now, right? And they haven't been powder coated. They're they're still in decent shape. I think you you don't want to run the risk of going too far. I think you're 10 to 15 is pro 15 is probably max. 10 10 might be a little short, but you just don't want to get to that point where then it's It's failed, right? Yeah. Yeah. I guess yeah, if you have a range of like that, I would think Yeah. You wouldn't want them to have it fail. So, if you said it's a 10year plan and it's looking good at 10, whatever. I think if you went out 15 years and the thing failed 12, that's not a win for the city. So, yeah. Not and in and option B, like I said, it's a it's a a lot more of a vague around like the terms where option A we kind of get into more clarification and um option A, like the bench terms, we put guarantee 10 years. Um just kind of yeah based on that information is is I mean you want to you want to make it a nice deal for those that are donating it too where they feel good about it but then yeah you don't want to overextend it and then next thing you know you're replacing them at the end of their lives at the you know the cost of the city I just know that the state fair because you know you get and I'm probably good last. I like that you said um you know the guaranteed the 10 years. So the let's say the bench lasts like those benches are lasting 15 17 years. Well then they got you know they got a bonus of seven years out of the deal right but guaranteeing a 10. I mean, in a in a perfect world, I mean, if we get to that point where we're redoing parks every 20 years, right? In a perfect world, if it would last you the life of lifespan of that, just like belts, if you said we're going to or B, we're going to be talking about Bay View for that CIP for next year, too. So, you'll say we should put six benches in here. If you could get those donations and then you would say, well, hopefully that's the 20 year lifespan or 25 year lifespan of that. And that's that donation and that covers it, right? And and maybe to your point, it's guaranteed for X amount. And if they start failing at year 15, that's when that contact gets reached out and say, "Hey, that it's looking a little shoddy. We're going to have to re replace it. Would you like to reup and redonate again for the cost of that bench?" And I I don't think we're trying to soak a donator. It' be the cost of what the bench costs and what the plaque costs. And I think public works would eat the installation and all that. It would just be you're just basically paying to put that bench in there and it would be memorialized with the plaque. So I don't think there would be extra cost to it. It's like, hey, thanks for also putting a bench in our park. And then with that, we'll memorialize your loved one or whatever you put on there. the uh this is one of those items that's a balancing point because parks are supposed to be Joyy's places and if everything in the park has got a memorial on it it's so it's a balancing thing I get it I mean certainly memorial park that's the name of it right uh I I tell you from my experience too these memorials are very personal and I would highly recommend that you limit what people can do because people could come up with all kinds of creative ideas and you're going to have a be inundated with special requests. Uh I know the county it was either a bench or a tree and it wasn't even a choice of what the bench was or the tree was. This the se the public works dictated this is the bench. This is the type of tree. Um otherwise you're just going to get into my grandpa's favorite tree was a cherry tree. Where can I plant a cherry tree? We Yeah. And that's something that we cover is just saying, yeah, um it's got to fit the park plan. Um and we'll we select like um for like option A, we go into the tree selection. We um species will depend on the park. Um staff will assist identifying a suitable tree. So, but that is kind of like I said, the the the option A and B, right, is the more vague where we don't get into the weeds. And then option A does, like I said, open that up a little bit, but it's still going to be everything will be reviewed, right? It's not it's not necessarily saying that we're just going to all a sudden start blasting away on memorials. It's still going to come here and it still has to be city council approved, but at least it just really gives staff a guideline to talk the folks through um that are looking to make the memorial. Um but but yeah, I mean certainly like I said it's not going to be I don't think we envision there's going to be you know maybe a good amount especially as this gets out there and it's it's more publicized um but it's need not you know to Don's point going to be all set every park because it's going to be loaded with memorials right um but uh but certainly I think it's a fair enough to try to so when I look at a there's a there's over a dozen bullets of different things that people could do. Do you really want that? I don't know that it's up to me. My my point is I I like saying is I think you you'd be better off limiting it. Limiting it limiting in it if you speak maybe have this is this is what you get and maybe it's a picture and it says Tim Gary on it. That's it. Because like you say all of a sudden they're creative. They want to put flowers in this and want flower holder for more. Well, who uh who memorializes a drinking fountain? So, you know, you might want to just take stuff certain stuff out and not even talk about it. I think you might have to separate the memorializing out too because it's it's basically a donation policy. I mean, so FLA was just here. They they put in a shed at Cooling Camp. They didn't put any names on it. They just they donated a shed. So, I think you that's part of what we we you don't want to have 10 different policies for the same kind of thing you're doing. You're you're kind of saying here's a list of all these things and then if you're donating a shed, yes, they're not going to be putting their name on it, but a park bench, yes, you're going to want to have specifics of it has to be I think it might even say that it has to be 5 by seven and it can only be so many lines and it has to be Yeah. something. and the park bench. You don't get to pick the park bench. It's the city picks that and the um trees. The the city will say, "We're going to put three oak trees, a maple tree, and a lynen in this park. If you want to donate one of those, you can pick one, but you can't put a cherry tree in here." And and also, we're not going to put 500 benches at Lakeside because everyone's going to want a bench at Lakeside. That policy be these are the benches that we have. and and that's if if all of them are donated then none of them are available. So I I I missed that. So option A is really a donation and memorial policy correct and option B is memorial only. Correct. Okay. So donation, memorial and dedication because I think but to your point the memorial I don't think everything that gets wants to be donated is necessarily a memorial. Sometimes it's a dedication maybe to someone that they're proud of versus a memorial. Right. So at the Did you say that there are specific locations at each park for a tree? Do you have it have locations identified in each park? So we don't So we need a policy first, right? It's one of those we need to have a policy for that. But I between Kyle, myself, and public works staff, you'd be able to we'd be able to go through I mean just the number of ash trees that have died Yeah. over the last couple years, you'd be able to replant a hundred trees in parks, right? And just to Karen's point with belts, we're missing benches. You we could find a number of benches, it's but I think we need to if we have a policy then staff needs to come up with here's the locations of where we want benches. Here's a location of where trees make sense. You know, we just don't want to all of a sudden have 500 benches somewhere or, you know, a park with trees everywhere. it's, you know, strategically placed everything, trees or benches or if FOBA wants to donate another shed, we want to make sure when we accept it that it's in a good spot, that it's going to be made sound that, you know, because once we take the donation, it it is ours. You know, we we we thank you for the donation, but it's it becomes our park bench, it becomes our shed, it becomes our tree. So, it's kind of that thank you for the don donation, but that's why the commission and the council would are going to review it before they accept that donation. They want to make sure we're doing something correctly. Two things. First of all, I'm very happy to have a list. Some of the things on there I've never even heard of people wanting to think of doing, but so that's the donation part. Like maybe my kid is thirsty all the time and I'd like to donate another waterfall. What's it going to be like? their name on it would be donation for that water in and certainly that that could be a case right I guess when I'm thinking about this I'm thinking too like we have our master plan right and all a sudden let's say we um belt park we have these courts now and um let's say we have a larger picture coming down the road of more benches or something and the way I think about it is hey maybe we don't have the funding to do xyz right now we're talking about lights at Fenway. Well, all a sudden we have this policy out there and all a sudden someone goes, "You know what? We're going to go find a bunch of money and we're going to donate sports lights." Like to me, it's more or less, hey, we have our master plan, but maybe there's things we can't put in there right now or that we had to um eliminate because of XYZ. But then someone like the Lions say, hey, no, we we like that there was five benches there and we see that we had to cut it because of a budget. will donate those benches. So, I mean, it's kind of it's it's a moving target because it depends on how you think about all these things. Um, it's not going to be like, yeah, my kid says they're thirsty walking um home from the high school, so we're we want to donate a drinking fountain off a 61 sidewalk or something, right? It's it's it's just kind of it's it's weird. It depends on the state of mind you're in when you're thinking about it. Um, but to me it's like, yeah, we we'd have this policy in place, but then we're going to have the plans in place, too. And maybe it's something where even we're talking next year, we have a park that's being planned out and someone's paying attention and says, "Hey, instead of you guys spending $5,000 on the bench, we'll donate the bench, spend $5,000 on something else just to enhance and build up the park even more." Right? It's just kind of a there's a bunch of different scenarios that you could run through, but getting this set is kind of the the start of all those what what could kind of come at us. And that and that list could probably be a mile long, right? I think they're just these these bullet points are trying to give an example of what could be, but I mean shed isn't even on there or somebody could donate a gazebo or who knows, right? I mean, it's that's why it says not limit to, but you're trying to give examples of here's some some things that could be donated. I mean, Belts Park was a good example with that. Um, the original rendition had a pavilion there with a drinking fountain and bathrooms, right? So, if now all of a sudden a drinking fountain on there, say M Health or somebody wants to say, "Hey, we want to throw some money at a park. We have money to to provide a drinking fountain." You know, so it's it's stuff like that when we're we're trying to redo these parks that we have this list of, okay, we can throw this out there of we can put in six benches and 10 picnic tables and 15 trees. There's a whole bunch of opportunities for people to donate. So if we pick option A, option B today, that's Do we get any prices coming with this that are we going to be able to oversee? You're going to have to have prices on all these things. And if I vote for option A, we're just going to be at the mercy of however you find it or are we going to come back and say now this is option A what we have listed in how much we would char because people are going to ask me. Um and so right now too do because we don't have the policy yet and they ask me. So then I say let's wait for a while because we're getting a policy together. That would be probably my standard answer because right now they have to go and talk to you about what they could do and I just don't know where we sit with the whole final plan. So on on there it says cost rate on this. If you're looking at the first one it says donor shall cover the full cost vendor price plus 50%. Of for purchase installation installation may include labor cost by park maintenance staff. Any additional costs were reviewed by the commission and approval. So I mean that's what we're asking for your opinion. Do you want it just to be at cost? Do you want city to donate their time to do this? I mean that that's what we're looking for feedback of, you know, to adopt this policy is we want you not to have that question. You we want you to weigh in on that and saying what do we what do we want to do for C? I mean obviously I'm I'm assuming we want to go backwards and no lose money on it. And I think that is my plan that that 15% will cover your overhead rate of Cal's time, my time to get the stuff ordered, to get it here, um, and staff to put it in. I think that's a pretty common price. We also, you know, don't want to charge someone $10,000 to put a park bench in because then it won't go in. So, right now, if someone wanted to with this policy, for instance, um, is a person going to pay the whole 10,000 for or 2,00 what was it for the bench 10,000? the I think the I think the standard's 2,000. 2,000. Okay. So, they'd have to pay if they're going to want a bench with a plaque, they'd have to pay the 2,000 plus up 15%. If we choose option A. Okay. The city, you know, we want we want this to be a cooperative venture with the people beautifying our city by trees and benches and whatever. So, I think the city too, that little spot you had about the city helping with the insulation or installation or whatever, I still think would be good to be in there. Well, option A has a lot more detail and it just lays it out so there's no second guessing, but we don't need the numbers actually. Yeah, we do need Yeah, but the number they're going to change every month and what stuff costs. Yeah, and I was going to say because you had asked that Karen of of are we going to have like a price list? So if we had if we have this policy in place, we can certainly have the more generic things kind of on hand where maybe it's not posted online, but you know, maybe we have something that staff has on file or we share with commission to say, "Hey, yeah, okay, so here's the general cost of trees, benches." So if someone does ask, you can say, "Yep, if you want to make a bench donation, it's $2,000 for a bench." We I don't know again if we would post that online because to Don's point too in you know May it might cost X but then also in December it cost Y. But the whole point would be at least there's that dedication of like okay hey I want to I want to do the bench. I know I'm going to pay for the bench. So I'm going to contact someone to find out how much that bench costs. Um, and again that's for all of us to decide is do we want to do a little pamphlet to say in general a bench cost this, a tree cost that and um kind of lay those out um and yeah subject to change or something like that. But the h how I again envision this working is it it just it opens up some ideas to people and if they're looking to do something I mean I I I'm not going to make it seem like it happens all the time but communityed world or working with programming worlds you do hear people say how do we donate money I have I work for 3M and we have this office pool where we can pick something to donate to. At least this puts it out there that there's some options and it can stir the conversations of oh what what if we can give back or what if we hey we do know there's a new park coming in we want to be a part of donating XYZ but um how I oh go ahead Don so I hear people are leaning towards option A and the discussion is on cost which is section four the question is is do we want to have the city public works installed at no cost the owner the people that donating mean they pay the for the material the city covers the install or do you want this the donator to also pay for the install? I want the city to pay for the asking a lot pay for all that they're making large donations as it is. I don't I don't think public works has an issue with that. I think that's part of what we do, right? I I think that's a great it's going to be a part of the master plan anyway. So if they're taking away parts of those costs then we install it. I think so. Section four, Kyle, we would tweak that to say donor shall cover the full cost for the purchase of the donation and installation will be provided by park maintenance staff. Something like that. Okay. And even strike the plus 15%. Yeah. Strike the plus 15. The other more of a formatting thing Dave and Kyle is section 11 is title memorial tree and then down below we talk about benches and plaques. I'm wondering if you just want to change the title of that to memorials. Yeah. And then section 12 says memorial statues fountains. I'm wondering if you just want to strike the word memorial and say statues. Okay. Y I think that's great. under the heading. Now, I understand that this is also donation policy. Yeah. And yeah, I kind of missed that when introducing it as well, so I apologize. No, nothing to apologize for. That's why we're all many eyes. Right. Right. Yeah, that's a good catch. We'll probably just make a section 12 with benches and then a section 13 for the statues, but just remove memorial from both and just have trees and then benches. Sure. Is there any other things that we that if we are gravitating towards option A that people would like to see? Once again, this is a recommendation to the council. I don't know if we want to Karen brought that up to you just for C. I don't know if we want to I don't know how you put that in there if we to give people an idea of cost rate and I get stuff moves but it's it's I don't even know if we have to list that or it's you know contact contact for for estimated cost or something and it's going to be different right because a lakeside bench is going to be those blue ones that are this way but yeah another bench may be a black one a different thing and it's or a maple tree may be $10 more than a lynon or whatever. But I I think uh for us just to kind of have a a general cost and maybe we can just have it on hand something in there that for cost or contact parks and recck department for estimated cost on what I do something like that. You do like a restaurant says market price expensive but at least to give them an idea right where that was my thought. I think Kyle will be busy, but not with a hundred phone calls. But you would be he'd be the place, I think. No, but I think I think just between public works and and Kyle that we can get a a general idea, right? I mean, we can know a park bench is going to be relatively between these numbers and a tree is going to be relatively between that. So, if somebody's looking to donate something, they say, I have $500 to donate. They kind of will have an idea of, okay, this is something I can afford. I can maybe get two trees or I can I think maybe a little more for a bench or or something like that. Dave, a suggestion knowing that these prices do change, but people want to know is keep it out of the policy, but on the website where you have I imagine you have a link to this policy or you can have that description just donations and then you can describe that this year benches approximately whatever. Cal's really good at hyperlinks so he could probably put a link in there and You could go say check current pricing and then you could just kind of have an estimated a bench is estimated at this much. A tree is estimated at this much. A drinking fountain is this much. I mean each year you'll have a plan and whatever park you're working on those benches are going to cost whatever those benches cost. And I mean the hope would be right that you do a a redo at Bay View Park next year and you're going to put in six benches that you get six people donate benches. Maybe you don't get that, but somebody wants to donate a bench at name your other park, Manor Park or something. Well, then okay, we still need to know that cost and kind of what's going to fit into that park and do we need another bench there? Do we want one? And I think that's what'll be the review of okay, somebody wants to put a bench at this park. We already have three here, a group here. Do do we want to put another one in or do we want to push them somewhere else? Sometimes that's going to be that tough decision of I know you want to donate a bench there, but we don't need any more benches here either. So Karen, we have another like what if problem. I know Kyle thinks I'd like to grandfather people in and I do, but let's say I had a plaque three years ago and now we have this policy. So does that mean unbeknown to me that I had to pay seven years later for the 10,000? Is there any way that if you're grandfathered in before the policy because that's not in the policy now if somebody three years ago and I have talked about that and I and I think everybody it's mostly Lakeside right mostly Lakeside is the donations that we have contact information for these folks and then when we do a a redo down there which may be within the next five years right where we need to do benches they would be contacted first and say We're doing a a rehab of all benches and all that. Would you like to redonate your bench this time? You're going to have to pay for the bench and memorialize it. You get the first first rate of refusal to it. And if they say, "No, I don't want it." We'll give them their take the plaque off, give them their plaque if they like it, but then, you know, then move on. I think yes. So, grandfather to a point, but then give them the first option for when it does get rehabbed to be put back in. Do you have a vendor for these benches or they're all over all over the board? I mean it it'll depend like so you guys uh pick Manor Park. So um with plate creations, they're going to make those concrete ones out of that'll look like locks. We may pick Flagship to do Bay View and they're going to have a vendor that does that sells this vendor's benches and we may go to the next thing and they I don't I'm not so concerned that we have one standard bench throughout the city. I think sometimes that gets boring too. You know, you want them to match kind of the the feel of your park. You want them to kind of blend in. So, I think it's kind of going to be at the same time that we're doing it like staggered. It's sometimes it's nice to have one thing the same so you don't you can keep the same part and keep the same whatever. But with a bench I mean you're hoping that when you put it in it's going to last you 20 years. So I mean you're you're hoping that when you put it in you don't have to find another bench that'll match that at some point. And it's a lot of money to sit on five benches at public works just in case something something rusts out. say you're sitting on a lot of money. Any other comments or questions? I I was just going to point out that if you do put any numbers on the website or a link to numbers, I would just make sure you disclaim the heck out of it so people understand that. Yeah, this isn't set in stone. Good idea. I think we'll give a pretty wide range Yeah. of You know, there's not going to be a number. It'll be it could be between $1,000 and $4,000 or something. I mean, you know what I mean? Or a tree could be between a hundred and $300 that we know for sure we're going to hit inside that number. That's a very good point that you don't want to still be helping. Your website said it was this amount. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Well, otherwise we can use a motion to Let me see if I got it right here. Turn it over to city council. It would be a motion to recommend council approves accepting morals donation and I'll say option A with revisions discussed as part of the overall parks and recreation department policies. Somebody would move Tim makes that motion. I second and Sue seconds. Any other discussion? All in favor? I Nice work on that, Kyle. Okay, I think we're down to staff updates. Kyle, um just uh couple couple items. Um pickle ball group seeing there's a large group that uh uses the Fenway Park pickle ball courts pretty regularly. Um can be up to I think 100 plus people. um that you know I don't know if that's at one time per se, but there's that many people that are in and out of there. Um certainly those courts do get very busy, so it's always nice to see a lot of folks out there. Um Henry's provided me some program updates too as we go. I don't know if he's specified the numbers, but they had their youth um camps that they that they run out at Castlewood. They had uh 48 kids registered for their Tuesday and 29 kids on their Wednesday. Uh, so it's a summerlong um golf um clinics and leagues I believe they do for the youth. Um, park rentals. I'm going to try to pull um more details out as we go to and I'll give you guys a a more broad update uh during July, but just kind of looking at some just park rentals in general. Um, we've had 20 requests up through up through today and that's going to be like gazebo, picnic shelters, pavilion, stuff like that throughout the park system. That doesn't include obviously the athletic fields usage um pickleball courts. We've had a couple um couple reservations. This is just mostly uh this is all park pavilion shelter rentals. Um so pretty pretty good on that, but we're going to try to keep close track to how many people are actually using those facilities. um uh Vets Memorial. I'm going to try not to go too too far, um into that, but I would like to just provide a couple updates of that project is is um going to be we're going to see at Lakeside Memorial Park. Um certainly we can provide, you know, maybe a a future meeting, a more dive into further details, but just that's coming along. That's something that you guys may hear um and see some things about. If you have any questions, certainly reach out to me. But uh just getting some construction progress that's going to start I believe in September right after uh Labor Day um there. So that that memorial um long backstory there but yeah just it's going to actually get kicked off down at Memorial Park this fall. So just staff Dave is very involved with that too. Just getting uh the construction stuff going and moving forward which is nice to see. Um Arts in the Park where we completed I think was that already our third week. Um been been uh pretty lucky with some um fortunate weather. Knock on wood. I probably shouldn't have just said that, but we got uh week week four next week and then we have a little break around the 4th of July, which we're all excited about. Um but it's been going pretty well. Um again, good weather, good music. We've seen an increase every week. Uh we think there I I kind of estimated over a thousand people there just uh last night and really good really good music so far and it's just been a pretty positive thing there. Um did get some update on FLAW. They provided uh their spring sports numbers uh this year. So baseball had 100 184 kids. Um most of them are using our system for fields, practices, games. Uh, fast pitch had 198 um, registrations. Lacrosse had 152. And based off their numbers from last year, that's pretty pretty standard. But they just provided an update on numbers. And again, um, while there are some of those groups that do use some fields outside of the city, Forest Lake, most of that is done at our our city fields, uh, Fenway, they also do some rentals at the school district, too, but most of it in Forest Lake. So, um, just just some number updates. It's always nice to see and and get that information from those groups. So, there's a lot more things going out there. Just trying to I'm trying to track down as much as I can, but there's a lot of people in the parks. Lakeside's very busy. Uh park rangers have moved. Um they're they're there seven days a week. Um they're seasonal park ranger staff. Um tomorrow for like the holiday, we'll full-time staff will be off, but we'll have park rangers down there pretty much all day, 9 to9. Um expecting those to be that that park to be pretty busy. So, as long as the rain holds off. So, yeah, just um Thanks. Thanks, Kyle. Yeah, seems construction activity out there. Is that a question or is that a uh Yeah, it's it's Yeah, it's coming along. The court's really nice. Um a lot of activity. Um site planning is uh I believe kicked off. It's going to probably take place most of July for the remaining of the work to be done to get started. I think August 4th was the the date for the playground construction to begin um with anticipation of being completed by the end of August. Moving some dirt or something. Yep. So, so all the all the site work uh all the pedestrian facilities are going in first. So, they'll be all new trails, sidewalks going throughout the park, ADA compliant uh trails and facilities. And then the playground will come in once that's in. So they'll hopefully be done by mid August. Yeah, there's still people playing tennis, pickle ball, basketball. It's nice to have nice courts that there's not cracks all over the place and uh trip hazards. I was wondering what pickle ball is exactly. Oh, what pickle ball is? We should have a demonstration. I think you should show me. Very popular. Very. We should maybe do a pickle ball tour. We were talking about lights. I mean, I have another list when it's my turn, but he mentioned lights and the neighbor over there asked me, "Why are the lights on so long when nobody's there?" They're supposed to be off at 10 is what I think I found out. So, that's what I was kind of pointing at you there because I know there was a question. So, there's a there's a double timer um setup and Dave's explaining to me like 100 times, so he's probably annoyed that I don't know. Um, but it's so there's an option that the the lights are able to be on until 10 and then there's a button that they can push that actually activates the lights. So if there's no one out there to activate the lights, the lights do they they will shut off automatically. But um they'll shut off at 10 period. Okay? So even if somebody activates, let's say, so the activation button lasts for 45 minutes. So, if I go out there at 9:45, hit the activation button, it's technically a 45minute timer. However, at 10:00, it's a hard stop for the lights. Oh, wow. So, if I come in at 9:15 and hit the button, 10:00, hard stop, 45 minutes up. If I go there at 9, hit the button, the lights will turn off automatically at 9:45. But there's another 15 minutes that I can repress the lights to turn them on. So, and if you push the button and you're only out there for 10 minutes, it's still going to stand for 45 minutes. There's no way to turn them back off. And is there a charge to push the button? And also, is it 25 cents payable to Dave Adams? A little tough to explain that all that you just explained, but um yeah, just say they're on till 10. Yeah, they push a button at a quarter 210, they're off at 10. They're off at 10. So, Kyle explained it perfectly. There's a timer inside there that The lights can only come on between 5:00 pm and 10 p.m. Okay. And then in between that timer, if you push the button at the at the courts, it'll run for 45 minutes. And that 45 minutes is the standard of playing tennis to be be able to play a set or something. However, they explained it to me is that that's kind of the average time that it would take that you could play, you know, for tennis or play for basketball. that half an hour is too short, an hour's too long. 45 is kind of that amount. And I think that's that's an opportunity for for staff to um probably get some sort of signage out there on that button. And certainly I I'll you know kind of follow up on that. Just you said it's a lot how people aren't going to know that, right? But that option being available, we'll definitely look at some sort of signage. You know, for the most part the summer months, that'd be great. Yeah, I think it's, you know, you're it's light pretty long where most people are. They're pretty good. But I just have a few updates. I alluded to it before. I will come back in July with the CIP um for the stuff that's planned and at least in 2026 to get your the group's feedback if it's recommended or not recommended. Um uh community development will be here in July. There's a concept planned for a development in in town. That's all I can say. Um, but they're going to need feedback for pedestrian facilities. Um, there's this one would won't be a park. It just you need comments on pedestrian facilities in this um neighborhood. Let's go fishing. I'm give you updates from last last uh uh commission meeting. Let's go fishing. Kyle's still working um with the group to kind of work through those logistics. Um so stay tuned for that. um the landscaping that we're going to make those two parking spots. We ripped out the the um sumac last week and just put mulch in it for the time being until we can get caught up. So, at least it doesn't look really bad. So, if you you're down there and you see the mulch, at least we're making our step. We got the sod in and that other step. If you've been down there, you probably have seen that the trees and the sod in there. So um and then we met we met with the district and FLA on Monday for that um the field preparation if you remember that about um FL not wanting to maintain the fields uh next year. So get we took one step of kind of figuring out where Flaw was in the whole deal and it's it's kind of going to they don't really want to do anything. They want to be able to show up to the field with it painted and just play ball, which is f which is fine. We just that's what we wanted to get out of that first conversation. Um so now it's going to be kind of the school and the city and reaching out to third parties to try to get costs and then um bring that back with FL and with the commission here to to kind of update you on where that's all at. So, but just letting you know we're working through that. We we kind of owe we told them we owe them flaw response back by the end of July because we know their budgeting comes up in October. So, and we also need to know that for our budgeting, too. And just so you're aware, public works has put in a field groomer and two part-time maintenance staff into the budget for 26 just in case we are taking that on. So, we've we've accounted for that if worst case scenario that we have to pick that up. So it's we're trying to plan ahead but we we just nothing else to report at that but we're working through that. Yep. So the plan a long time ago the the discussion was FL wanted to do it because they know fields city they didn't want to do it because city would have you know good intentions but they didn't always know about the fields how to how to groom them and how to take care of them. Obviously that's all been kind of water over the dam that now they're thinking you're going to hire maybe this guy who knows about fields. I would I would say that we probably know a lot more than flaw about fields now. No, I don't know. I Everybody's happy. That's what we want. Yep. And I and I think they're comfortable knowing that we know what we're doing, too. and the whether it's us the school or a third party I think flaw has relayed back to us that they're comfortable with they want to do what they do best is program and have kids play sports and they don't want to have to maintain fields which is understandable and in all honesty that's what we've been trying to get through a number of years to get to that point where we do maintenance let's maintain you do programming you program let's let's separate that out discussion Yep. It'll just be the money part. That's that's the whole thing to make make that all work. Yep. That's all I have. Okay. Thanks, Dave. Uh, commissioner updates while we go down the road. Sandra, anything? No. Okay. Karen. Yeah. Tim took care of one. I had a couple of calls. Again, we live in the neighborhood, so I get a couple of calls about belts. And I was telling them that I knew that the first phase was going to be the groundwork and didn't come for quite a while. So, know it's coming from what I saw today even they're bringing in dirt and flags and all sorts of things. So is that what's happening right now is they're putting in all the ADA bottom part. Yep. That that they were waiting for the watershed permit. There was some issues over the storm water pond that they got to put in a kind of bofiltration pond and they didn't get permitted on that. So that finally got approved at the last meeting. So they they were supposed to start two weeks ago, but they didn't get the permit till Friday. So that's why they waited till they figure it's about a month, six weeks, four to six weeks to do all the site work, do all the removals, add the sidewalks, the trails, permitting. What was that? Weather permitting. Yes. The next thing um down at Arts in the Park last night, we were discussing the fact that there's no handicap parking. I noticed that. And you know, not only is that not convenient for our populace, but it's also, I think, against the law that we don't have so many spaces. And there's a sign up there that says handicap parking, but then there's a big truck parking there. And so, you know, that there isn't any handicap parking. So, I think I was looking for help commission or anyone to see how we could solve that problem because it's a big one. I'll just hit on I Yeah, you're I mean, you're you're accurate in some of the things there. We do bring in temporary handicap parking signage and we do dedicate a couple spots for the spots that are taken up. I think is there how many spots are taken up from the food truck? We take up two and then we replace them with two in the lot. Yep. So there's um they found one. So you think there's two and are they way at the end? They're back to back. So there's two spots. They're double sign, right? Yep. Yep. So, in that's um it's it's not very far from that main entrance where the city tent is. So, if you if you're leaving the city tent, walking out into that main parking lot, it's those first spots to the left. Um it's not the first spots to the left. Not where the food trucks are, but in into the main lot. Um no, it's I mean it's it's you know where the dumpster is? Yes. It's it's two spots right out in front of there. Are you calling that the main entrance? No. Well, I'm just saying it's not dumpster and we're gonna I would say that's way back at the end like the gentleman or lady was both telling me about. They said they're way down at the end. I would agree with that. I don't know why you call anything next to the dump dumpster as kind of good. Yeah, we might not be on the same page. I Do you want to wait for it to load? We'll we'll pull it up on the map to show you because I think I I don't know if we're talking about the same same area. Anyway, um we used to have uh parking right on the street and now the trucks are there of course we can't do that and the response was the only other ones other than she only saw one was over by the building which most of the building wants that reserved for them. And so I just think it's let's say we have two. Is two enough to handle that big crowds that we have down there or shall we try to be creative in another way? So the the two parking spots that are handicapped are Can you see my cursor? Yes. Are here and here? They get replaced by the spots here. There's all actually it's these two. Those two. And then FLPD has these two spots reserved. And then the band have these two. So these six spots are coned off the morning of. You have one, two, three, 4, five, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, I think 12 other handicap in the municipal lot. I understand where they want it right next to Arts in the Park, but the municipal lot can't we just can't shift parking spots for events, right? Because Can we take that sign down then? Because that's absolutely not true. The one where it says handicap parking. You're talking about where the food trucks block, correct? So, she's talking about those parking spots. But are those permanent signs? They're just permanent signs. Yeah, we we I mean, we could bag them. bag. Yeah, I was just going to say we could bag them, but if we are providing when we take them up with vendors, we provide those two extra spots on the lot. So, we we we're not we are ADA compliant. We're not taking away. I'm not going to know any of that. When I come in handicapped, I'm not going to know that. Oh, that sign means over there. But it's, you know, I just I just don't like the sign being that it says there when it's maybe 1214 other places. I get that, but I don't Is it Is it when is it like during the middle of the day before Arts in the Parks? I mean, if it's during Arts in the Park, there's a vendor there. So, I don't even know how they see the sign. Yeah, it's way high. So, I just don't know. Okay. I look up, put a garbage bag over it. I mean, we can I mean, I mean, I just can you see my point? I come in there and I see, oh, I don't see any handicap where I used to see it because we used to see across the front there. But the sign says it's here, but it's not here. So, I wonder where it is. I mean, those handicap spots haven't been there for 10 years since we've done Arts in the Park in those spots. I mean, it's it's not a new thing that we've 10 years. Wow. Time's so fast. So, I think Yeah. So, I mean, well, I think Dave I think we can definitely public works has got it. You can look at bagging that one sign, Dave, that's there. confusion. The reality is is whether you're handicapped or not, the parking for this event is a challenge. It is. It's you you can't you can't rotate the whole parking lot to because otherwise then you're going to have to sign the handicap spots to non- handicapped and then create other spots and it's just it's a mess. And we've get we've gotten those complaints before, but we are within compliance. We're providing enough ADA parking. It's and and even the ones we take, we do replace. So, I we can definitely bag those ones off if that that is causing confusion for residents, but um I would kind of go against creating more because I I don't know how many more spots we want to take up. Well, they're probably good for non park non arts in the park. You can leave take the bag off. I don't know how a bag would look so cute, but So, what we do is when we cone it, we when we cone it in the morning, cone off it. We'll just we'll bag we'll bag those two signs. Thanks, Dave. And And did you I just want to make sure this is these are the spots that we do right where the cursor is. We have the I see your cursor. Um it's way at the bottom. Oh, it's way down there. So, this is these are the two spots that we replace. And we do have a handicap sign there that that's a temporary sign. So, just I just want to make sure that you know that there's the the temporary sign gets put put up um in those two coned off spots for the two spots we take up. But in addition, we'll bag the permanent signage that's blocked by the food trucks. Thank you. The other thing I want I had on mind was to thank Kyle for the job that he's doing because he has just started and there's a lot of confusion about things down there and he handles it well. Even with the people that don't think he handles it well for them, they still don't get mad at him. So, he's just a great employee to have. He's always out there to put his number out and get back to the people if they do have a question. And being as long as I have in the city, that's a real plus to me that he's out there actually caring about making sure the people have their questions answered. So, thank you. He's all right. Dave reminds me I'm good every day. All right, we'll go down the row. Uh Sue. Uh no, I'm I'm good. Tim, Melissa, we covered everything else. Okay. I mean, I would just echo Karen's comments on Arts in the Park and I'd encourage any of the commission members too that OKA is looking for volunteers for nights. I'll tell you one benefit. You get a nice chair under the tent and you can watch the band. But it's it was a it was a lot of fun watching the kids come up and color and Kyle does a great job make setting that up and scrambling. So, I echo those comments. I'll help anytime you need it. Great. I guess I do have one thing. When we talked about the memorials, I was wondering is any of the policy going to be around when people make their own makeshift memorials in public places? Because I really, you know, I see them on the road and that's one thing you just drive by there at the park. I was really happy to see that there was a sign at Lakeside Park and now not that whole memorial that's there. So, is that going to be part of it? Like what is and isn't acceptable by the city? Yeah, I think um it it uh again the any of the memorials will still have to be approved, right? And I I'm trying to find in here, but I believe we do have like limits of what wouldn't be um you know, not accepted for donations. Yeah. Yep. Yep. To his point and to your question, having a policy would probably help us out greatly if this was something that was done against city policy. We would greatly help us in enforcing stuff that shouldn't be there. There still is a remnant of a memorial down there. Correct. I understand they took the plaque and gave it to the family. No, there's a there's there's a there is a plaque there um by a tree. So, how about flowers and memorials? Um that has been worked out with the family and removals happen weekly by public works. Okay. that has I'm just glad she brought that up. That has been a question. But I that's a very good point, but that's I think why if we have a policy then we have something to lean on if if something gets out of control in the future with who knows what it is, right? And then at least we can say this is against a policy that wasn't approved by the city and gives us something to stand on. So all right, we have a motion to adjurnn. So move Tim. Second. Second. Second by Sue. Thanks, Sue. All in favor? All right. Thanks, everyone. [Music]