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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPRMinutes_2025_01_06 Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Notes Monday, January 6th, 2025 5:30 PM 1. Call to Order Chair Erika Saunders called the meeting to order at 5:30 pm. Members Present: Erika Saunders, Steven Berseth, Brenda Andersen, Nathaniel Condelli. Members absent: Jay Larson, Stacy Zerfas and Cloe Barber. 2. Approval of Agenda Kristin Zimmerman suggested to change agenda and postpone #4. Introduction of High School Student. Steve Berseth motions to approve the amended agenda, Nathaniel Condelli 2nds; Motion is carried. 3. Approval of Minutes Brenda Andersen motions to approve the minutes, Steve Berseth 2nds motion; Motion is carried. 4. Call to the Public No members of the public were present at the meeting. 5. Introduction of High School Student Highschool student wasn’t at the meeting so we will postpone. 6. Discussion and Possible Action: 2025 Golf Course Fee Proposal Kristin explained that in years past the regular rates from the previous year become the early bird prices for the next year. She wants to do a slight increase. There will be a higher increase for the cart packages. Our current golf cart lease is ending, and we need to renew. So, the increase will help with the cart costs. The new lease increased by $40,000. We are recommending that the Par 3 course be increased from $7.00 to $10.00. That was actually an increase that Gary wanted. We try to keep the numbers as low as possible because we want to make sure that everyone is able to utilize the golf course. We are looking for support from the Park and Recreation Board. This would have to go to city council for formal adoption. The golf carts that we are getting we will be able to advertise and that will help with cost. We will also be able to promote events that are going on in the city. Each year Gary request new golf carts because there are more members and its hard to keep up with the charging. These carts will have lithium batteries, so they last long and hold a charge better. We do have a lot of utilization of the course. We are to the point that people aren’t able to get tee times right away and are having to wait. During the morning most of our players are members and this is 5 days a week. They will be limiting the tournaments. This will help open up some tee times for weekends and for people that may be coming into town and want to play. Steve Berseth makes a motion to approve moving forward with the fee schedule to City Council. Brenda Andersen 2nds the motion; Motion is carried. 7. Directors Report Golf Course Water Sourcing: We are currently working with the engineers right now on some drawings for what it would look like at the test well on Mills Property. We are working on how we will get the water across the road. We hope that in the next week we will have some drawings put together and really start working with the property owner. We do hope to break ground in Spring. The property owner has agreed to do an easement. So that is really great for us. We will have a well house across from the golf course with a pump that will pump the water to the ponds. We will also have fountains to aerate it. Greg then will be able to pump directly from the ponds. We will be lining the ponds. We will bore under the road and the greens so we shouldn’t impact the course. We do know that this process has taken a long time, but this will be the best option. The other options were much more expensive. We will be purchasing the land but will have a permanent easement that will allow use access to the building. We will have to get permitting through the state for the water, but that will not be an issue. The expectation is to get water to the course by the fall. Page 2 Park and Recreation Board Vacancy: we do have a vacancy due to someone resigning from the board. If you know anyone that might be interested, please let them know. We will be putting out a formal announcement out to the public. Other Items: We wanted to let everyone know that the Brookings Marathon is moving to the fall. It is moved to October 18th 2025. We also want to give an update about the 5th street gym. We are working with the school district and we have secured gym space until the sale of the building can or will happen. There have been a couple of groups that have reached out to see if the city would be supportive of the operation of the 5th Street Gym, we would be supportive and are going to supply a letter to the school district letting them know that we are open to managing and operating the 5th street gym. We would become a tenant. The staffing plan for Parks, Recreation and Forestry is changing a little bit with Allen Kruse retiring. With Josh being the Assistant Director, he is going to be taking over a lot of the responsibilities that Allen had. Kristin showed our new staffing plan to the Park Board members. She is planning to reclassify one park tech position to a natural resource specialist. This person will be able to do a lot more with the invasive species and be more environmentally friendly when it comes to using pesticides and fertilizers and chemical application. It would be a hybrid position between parks and recreation and they would be able to assist more with the Dakota Nature Park. Our hope is to be able to keep the Nature Park open more. There will be some specialized training for this position. We have a few staff in house that would be great candidates. The new position that we would be adding is another forestry tech. This would allow us to have two teams and work more efficiently especially with Emerald Ash Borer coming in. This position won’t disappear. We are excited to see the Dakota Nature Park open more and having it open to people to utilize with more recreation programing as well. We are also looking into having year-round ice at the Larson Ice Center. We would be looking at the Blue Rink to have ice year-round. Ice normally comes out for about 3 months. We believe that having ice year-round would be very beneficial for open skate and it will take some pressure off of the curling club and figure skating. They don’t really have set seasons so this would really help them be able to have ice time when we aren’t in hockey season. Dakota Bank Center will not be using the red rink. Year-round ice will be great because we will also be able to have hockey camps in the summer and it will help people that have to travel for summer ice This will also help our staff. We have many employees that are working at the Larson Ice Center and they are sometimes working until 1 am. Its just not something that is sustainable. We have a lot going on but that is very good for our department. 8. Adjournment Brenda Andersen Motions to adjourn, Nathanial Condelli 2nd the motion; Motion is carried.