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<br /> <br />Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes <br />November 12, 2025 <br />--------- <br />Page 4 of 6 <br />River emergency management staff Fire Chief Dickenson and Police Chief Kuhnly, do a generic safety <br />assessment of our public infrastructure. <br /> <br />Chair Anderson said that his recommendation would be to do nothing at this time. He cares about <br />safety as much as anyone, but he said they are talking about potentially millions of dollars. <br />Commissioner Loidolt said he agrees. Commissioner Goodwin said that St. Paul appears to be an <br />outlier. She thinks that based on the feedback gathered from other cities it doesn’t appear to be an <br />imminent threat or an emergency right now, so until it becomes a problem, she thinks they could wait <br />on financing anything. Commissioner Goodwin does think an assessment would be valuable. <br />Commissioner Stewart asked Mr. Shelby if the request was based on a specific incident that occurred. <br />Mr. Shelby said no, nothing specific that he is aware of. <br /> <br />Mr. Shelby said they are always mindful of security and protection of anyone that uses the fields, which <br />is why they put together the EAP. They are open to any safety assessments. <br />Commissioner Niziolek said one of the things that makes this special is that the Plants and Things <br />Recreational Complex has a sponsor that is contributing money and if they feel that the expenditure of <br />funds should be made for safety then the commission should listen to them and prudently proceed. He <br />thinks that’s what makes this park different from the other parks, there are naming rights associated <br />with it. <br /> <br />Chair Anderson said the PT Complex is similar to the other parks and public safety is the same no <br />matter where they go. Commissioner Varty said having someone come and assess safety should satisfy <br />their request. Chair Anderson said his personal recommendation is to do nothing. <br /> <br />Mr. Shelby said that what he is hearing is to have staff reach out to the City of Elk River emergency <br />services staff to do a boot on the ground assessment starting on the PT Complex and bring that back. <br />The Commissioners agreed. <br /> 7.2 Park Usage Survey Results <br /> Mr. Shelby presented his report. He shared that Country Crossings Park is the one seeing the most <br />usage and engagement at this time of the three parks in the survey. If they were going to look at <br />managing their funds responsibly and condense the playground structures to just one park in this <br />region, Country Crossings would be the one to keep online. Mr. Shelby said the Country Crossings <br />Park playground is not planned to be removed at this point, but the amenity has aged to the point <br />where it cannot be repaired. <br /> <br />Commissioner Loidolt pointed out that those surveyed reported they thought the amenities at Country <br />Crossings were good. Mr. Shelby explained that there is a difference between what needs to be <br />repaired as it ages and how it appears. <br /> <br />Commissioner Stewart asked what they are going to do with this information now that they have it. He <br />asked if they were going to rank the three parks and do a one-page summary of them ranked. Mr. <br />Shelby said yes, then staff would reexamine the CIP plan and schedule and make recommendations to <br />City Council about where money should be allocated. He said originally the CIP plan included replacing <br />every single playground and that would be a difficult task to accomplish. Mr. Shelby said they need to <br />get on track with what is doable. The original CIP schedule was set against the manufacturers <br />recommended life span of each amenity. <br /> <br />Commissioner Niziolek said that by looking at the numbers he thinks that 33 users a week out of the DRAFTPage 5 of 25