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Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes June 11, 2025 --------- Page 9 of 10 Commissioner Niziolek said that because the plan is going to cost them $100,000, he thinks they should rely on staff expertise to give them guidance on which playgrounds they are going to close. Commissioner Varty said the city is going to have to put out a public campaign about the budget and that some parks may need to close. It’s no different than not having enough money in your household budget. Commissioner Goodwin explained that she doesn’t think it is necessarily a horrible thing to close some because they have other great parks to direct people to. They have many beautiful parks in the city that are different than many cities around us. She understands people will be disappointed and upset and complain but they have other options to direct them to. They don’t have the money for everything but can offer other things that can create value in their life. Mr. Stremcha asked Chair Anderson and the commission how they would feel about a community survey where they asked something like rank your top 10 playground locations in the community with an educational component of there are 16 playground locations over the next 10 years we’re planning on making improvements to the top 10 but with intention that the bottom 6 would no longer be upgraded as things are discontinued. Councilmember Grupa said when he thinks of a destination park, he thinks of Orono and Woodland Trails Regional Park. He is thinking more of a broad survey for community parks. He thinks you may get more feedback from some of the smaller parks. Commissioner Varty thinks ten is too many and that there should only be like three surveyed at a time or it will get muddled. Mr. Stremcha said they could do it geographically with key regions with only a few parks at a time. Commissioner Niziolek said he would like staff to put something together and bring it back to the next Commission meeting. Commissioner Varty asked if that could be done at the Farmers market. Secretary Larson commented on feedback she received while working at events during the Play My Way campaign last year. She explained that part of the campaign was explaining to the public that many playgrounds within the city would have to be replaced over the next ten years and that there is not enough funding to support the replacement of all of them. The campaign’s main focus was to gather feedback from the public on what playgrounds and amenities they are using and value the most. The city could then focus on the positive aspects of what playgrounds and amenities would be kept. The natural process of elimination would happen on its own based on feedback from the public. She shared that the City of Elk River has an amazing marketing team that could create a public campaign to share information with the community, assisting the commissioners and council to make the best fiscally responsible decisions with the most positive outcome. Mr. Stremcha said they could break the survey into regional areas to review if that is what the commission would like them to do. They could also break it into destination playgrounds. For example, region one would get a survey in August regarding what they would like in their region. Commissioner Goodwin said she likes it, but it needs to be playground focused. She said they could look at the three playgrounds near Orono first. Mr. Stremcha said they could ask questions about what they want in their geographical area, i.e., neighborhood. Chair Anderson said that when his kids were little, people thought every neighborhood had to have an open space for kids to play pick-up ball. He thinks that kids are very programmed now and not just