08-13-2025 Parks and Recreation Commission Packet (1)

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DRAFT Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes July 9, 2025 --------- Page 6 of 9 Commissioner Goodwin asked if he wanted the flowchart reflected in the intro and overview. She asked staff if the table of contents will be an interactive pdf. Mr. Stremcha said it could be. She said she thinks a table of contents is still very user friendly. She thinks that users will be intuitive enough to be able to find what they want in the table of contents themselves. Commissioner Niziolek said that it would be more user friendly to have them be able to click directly on the link they want. Commissioner Goodwin said that she thinks he is describing a document with hyperlinks. Mr. Stremcha explained that the document could be hyperlinked like municode where the City’s ordinances are located. Commissioner Niziolek said that he likes that idea. Mr. Shelby pulled up the municode on the website to show the Commissioners what it looks like. Mr. Stremcha said that they can make an interactive website document or a flip through page document. Commissioner Niziolek said they need to build something that is more up to the current standard of technology. Mr. Stremcha said they could do both if they wanted. It could be an online document that users could download as a pdf. Commissioner Fermoyle asked what “trends” meant. Mr. Stremcha trending in the parks and the recreation world, for example, neighborhood parks are shrinking and other amenities growing. Commissioner Niziolek asked if staff are doing the park inventory or if the professional services we would hire are doing the park inventory. Mr. Stremcha explained that we have a good base already with the research that staff have done. He said it depends upon how deep the commission wants to get into the description of the inventory of each park. Commissioner Fermoyle asked if the community public engagement piece is describing what the public does currently or what they hope they will do. Mr. Stremcha gave the example of the Play My Way campaign as an example of public engagement to gather information. Commissioner Niziolek asked what facilities to include in the inventory. Mr. Stremcha explained that it would be the facilities within each park. Commissioner Niziolek suggested that the FT Center was part of the parks inventory within facilities. Mr. Stremcha explained that the FT Center is not under the umbrella of Parks and Recreation other than the Senior Activity Center. Commissioner Niziolek pointed out that park and trail use will want to be a quantifiable item to measure for the plan. Commissioner Goodwin said the point of this plan is to really lay out the honesty of the challenges they are facing and then go into the details. Mr. Stremcha questioned whether they need to add youth enrichment and other categories. Secretary Larson suggested this might fall under recreational programming. Mr. Stremcha suggested alphabetizing the list under the system plan, and the Commissioners agreed. Commissioner Niziolek said that he wants to make sure they consider the sustainability of new park properties and work towards a sustainable system. Commissioner Goodwin said that she thinks that’s where they need to be honest and lay out the next 10 to 15 years of parks and recreation as far as what it is going to look like as they pursue their goals and initiatives in order to make it great for Elk River. She thinks they should be honest about the challenges they are facing regarding sustainability and how they need to adjust their financial allocation. She thinks “Sustainability” could be under “Implementation.” Commissioner Stewart agreed. Mr. Stremcha said they should change the header from “Maintenance” to “Implementation and Sustainability” and put maintenance under that category. The Commissioners agreed to change the header. Chair Anderson suggested putting the title word Page 8 of 44