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Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes November 12, 2025 --------- Page 5 of 6 amount of people that live in Elk River is low. Commissioner Goodwin said that she doesn’t think that they conveyed the messages right in the survey. She thinks that based on their responses it’s hard to tell if they are just walking through the park with their dog or stopping to use the playground. She feels that they should have asked surveyors what they would eliminate instead of what do they want because the city can’t afford to maintain them as is. Commissioner Niziolek said that he thinks that 33 is a really low number when you think about the scope of the community and he doesn’t think the city can continue to have these playground amenities in all these smaller parks. He thinks it will be very expensive, and they don’t have the funds to support this. Councilmember Grupa said that the purpose of this survey was to figure out where to start if there is a need to start eliminating playgrounds. He said that based on this survey you would start on the bottom and go the other way. Commissioner Niziolek said when he was looking at these parks he didn’t see anyone in them. He asked what they can legally do with the park properties, such as what they could do to make the parks into places people would want to go to. Mr. Shelby said it depends upon how the park property was acquired by the city. Chair Anderson said they all probably came from park dedication. Commissioner Niziolek asked if they could plant them all with trees and just be done with it or place solar panels on them to power play items for kids. Mr. Stremcha said they could plant trees, but as far as solar panels he said potentially if they powered something with the purpose of recreation. He said for example, they have solar powered picnic tables. He said the survey feedback is giving the commission the information they need to prioritize what is done in the parks. Commissioner Niziolek said that the maintenance costs are significant as well. He thinks that mowing the parks every week when they aren’t used is a waste of funds when they could use those funds elsewhere. He said there is a deeper discussion that needs to be had about what park land can be used for. Mr. Shelby discussed some of the things that he learned about at conference about park programming. He said that those are things that they will discuss as they move forward with park planning. Councilmember Grupa said this is part of a bigger conversation. He said people always ask him how many parks the City of Elk River needs. He said that now they are talking about being eliminated because they are too much to upkeep. He said he is still learning the process of how this is all done. The Commissioners discussed how the process got started and how they ended up here. Chair Anderson agreed there is a lot of discussion to come, and they have already started on the park framework plan. Commissioner Niziolek said he wants to emphasize that these spaces are not going away and they have to figure out how to use the properties and be financially prudent. Commissioner Goodwin said the spaces aren’t going to change but the way we accommodate the spaces, and the structures may change but there are some creative opportunities in the changes that the community can be a part of. She is hopeful as communities change people will want to be outside and will consider some new ways to innovate these green spaces that are lovely and wonderful. 8. PARKS AND RECREATION MANAGER UPDATE DRAFTPage 6 of 25