Paul Marino, Ward Two.

Rebecca's word five.

Chad Raymaker, Ward Six, acting as park board president since Gary is gone this week for today.

Um first thing on the minutes o would have been Pledge of Allegiance that I miss.

Let's do that now.

Pledge leads to the United States in America and standard indivisible with the justice coral.

All right.

Um first item on the agenda is approval of the minutes.

Do we have a motion to approve the minutes?

No move.

And a second.

Any discussion.

Um in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Um order of the agenda.

Does anybody have any discussion about the order of the agenda?

All right, seeing none, we will approve the order of agenda.

We don't need to do a vote for that, right?

Uh no.

No, I must have changed.

Um next agenda meeting agenda is the open comment period.

Do we have anybody?

Nobody signed up for the open comment period.

Okay.

Um we will keep rolling into reports.

Paul.

I the reports are summary of the uh parks and recreation updates that go out each week.

I just wanted to comment on this the great reflections from our supervisor team on that year-end uh uh notice I went out, and from that you can tell that they just want to accomplish in 2025.

And I would like to say we're gonna slow down a little bit, but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen.

So uh programs, projects, uh all throughout the system.

Uh and we uh of course that's what we're here for is to bring uh votes to you for feedback and approval, and we appreciate your supporting that.

Uh but just wanted to point that out.

And um please if you haven't had a chance to look at that, is uh I uh got some really good insights there, so thank you.

All right, um, next agenda meeting or agenda item is the informational item and report on the sixth street bridge construction and connection to Soldiers Field Park.

Yeah, we have uh Steve Sampson Brown, director of construction for the city, and Jamie Wilson, who's a project manager, and uh they uh will be presenting uh to you today.

Are you I move my getting now?

There's a gentleman.

Yeah, I'm sorry, that's my first commitment.

Oh excuse me, Chad.

We do a gentleman wants to do some so I can talk about who's here broker.

Go back yeah.

How long do I get like two minutes or something like that?

Yeah, yeah.

Mr.

Chair, just before we let the public speak, because the open comment period was already sort of closed, just to do it formally, I would ask that you take a vote in a supermajority would sort of suspend the rules, reopen the open comment period, and allow any member, not only this gentleman, but any members of the public that wish to speak for their four minutes.

So okay, that's how I would procedurally second.

Got a second.

Um all in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Unanimously.

All right, go ahead.

Go ahead.

Hey, I got a problem.

Uh I took my grandson's uh sliding sliding, uh, Judd Hill on Sunday, about 11 o'clock.

And uh I noticed that that hill's very dangerous.

Uh it's basically built for kids to get hurt.

Uh the grade goes like this, all the way down halfway down the hill.

And then all the kids, the younger ones under 13, I would say, go to the top of the hill because they can't get on their sleds halfway down the hill.

So they go to the top, and then by the time they hit these bumps, they're going left and right.

They're not going straight.

Well, my grandsons, I put them on a sled, both of them, and I pointed them straight down the hill.

And we went halfway up the hill because I didn't want to go over these things.

So they went straight down for about 20 yards and they beered to the right and they hit the telephone pole.

He broke his leg, had to have surgeries, pins put at him.

Now I've slid down there since I uh I grew up in Country Co Manor.

And when we when I was 14, they had snow fences on the bottom, and then they had a fence around the telephone pole, snow fence about 10 feet away from it.

So if you got near it, you'd bounce off a fence.

Well, like I said, they were going straight down and then they veered and they went right for 20 yards and hit the side of the pole, not the front.

Well, here's my problem with the whole thing is today.

Uh something must have said something because before that, you'd watch kids going down the hill and they'd slide into the street.

Well, they put the snow on the bottom.

Well, that's fine, but they left 20 feet wide open.

So a couple of kids I saw bounced up, one bounced off the car, the other one went halfway in the road.

And everybody doesn't drive 25 miles an hour there.

So here's the problem I got.

Today they went and dumped snow all the way along.

There are trucks.

Well, they put boulders like this.

It's not like soft snow.

It's like if you come down the hill and hit a boulder, that's as bad as hitting anything.

So what I'm getting at is they put it in front of the old time they dropped snow here, and kids were still going over it on this.

So what I'm not understanding is isn't that liability for the city if they don't do something protect the children.

I mean, that pole, either put snow there or put one of them field goal pads there, or do something.

A telephone pole has been hit for years.

Anyway, my grandson's in the hospital, and the doctor told him that there was 80 kids coming through the emergency room this weekend.

And he said a majority of them came from Giant Hill.

So something's got to be done.

Now, tonight, kids are gonna go down that hill and hit these boulders this big at full speed.

Well, that's like hitting a so what you should do is put the snow down, get a bobcat, make it so it goes like this so they can go up the thing and down, but hitting a boulder isn't the solution.

It's it's causing a problem.

So here's the big thing.

Most of the accidents I seen when I was there was kids were coming from the top of the hill because they can't get on their sled in the middle.

So they go to the top and they're under 13, I'd say, and they're they're going all over the place.

Well, the people on the bottom of the hill, they're walking up the middle of the hill.

They're supposed to go to the sides.

There's a sign for that, but they don't.

So I think the only solution would be to put a snow fence down the sides, and then a snow fence on the bottom.

Can't be running into boulders.

But here's the elastic thing I'll say because I know I'm taking up time.

There's a ramp there on the hill, four feet tall.

Uh for jumping for teenagers, probably did it at night.

Well, if you start in the middle of the hill, you hit these bumps, you're going towards that ramp.

Liability-wise, I think you wouldn't want a ramp there at all.

So if you got guys dump the snow, you should have someone in the city be able to knock down these ramps every so often.

That's all I got to say.

Right.

My daughter-in-law, it's actually very upset about it.

Do you have a name for the record?

For my name?

Yes.

Yeah, Sheamus Palmer.

Do you need my address?

Or if you could sign in to the component.

Yeah, I think this was it.

Is this it?

No, it's fine.

Yeah.

Right here, right here.

So that they're following.

So it sounds like park staff is already following up, but maybe we've got a key.

Yeah, some of you told me to get a number.

Somebody told me to get a number because I'm going to take longer than two minutes.

Something uh number two board park um park board representative.

That's me.

Can I get your phone number so I can call you sometime?

Sure.

What's your number?

Um, let me write it down.

Yes, sir.

I appreciate it.

There is basic contact, so it's a website, too, so that you can send through master.

So anyway, the big concern I have is the kids get knocked down from the kids coming down the hill.

But okay, did do you have anybody who ever looks into that stuff to see?

Obviously, we're already looking into it because we're trying to make changes, maybe didn't make quite the right ones.

Um, I think we're at our two minutes, and it's like we're thank you very much.

And um, it's good information and sounds like something that needs to be applied to.

Um, if we go back to uh the order of the meeting, and uh get back to the sixth street bridge that would be great.

Thank you.

Great.

I mentioned before.

Uh I'm Jamie Wilson.

I'm the project manager at City Administration, and Steve Sampson Brown, director of construction is with me tonight.

And we're working on the Sixth Street Bridge project.

Remember the next one.

And uh this first slide is just showing a little bit about the project area.

So this project actually, if you want to just slide on a little further, it'll show you a bigger map.

Um we didn't want all fit on one slide.

Uh, but this project actually starts over on uh second avenue southwest, it goes all the way along uh 6th Street South to uh 9th Avenue Southeast.

So it runs that entire way, a majority of it that people are talking about and thinking about is actually close to Broadway because that's where we'll actually be building a bridge.

So that's a significant portion of it, but there's things happening all the way into the neighborhood.

We're doing some improvements in the neighborhood with the street and actually adding a multi-use trail over it into the east side of the neighborhood, and then this meets up with the um the link uh station that's happening just to the east of the actual bridge.

So there's a lot a lot happening right in that area that's uh we're trying to coordinate between those two projects, and then of course we are working on the connecting with the trail systems, which is why we wanted to talk with this group as we will be connecting with the trail system, and then also there's some effect over to Soldiers Field, which is also why we want to talk, go ahead and scroll down to the next one.

So, as we look at the a little bit of the project design overview here, this gives you uh really high-level view of the bridge.

This bridge is going to separate the pedestrians and the bikers away from the cars that will be on the bridge.

That was something that we really heard through the community feedback is that people wanted that separation.

And in fact, one step further, I'm actually going to have you go down to the next one.

I think it's a little better uh view of the bridge.

Uh, as you look straight down on it, what you'll see is we actually have a separation between the pedestrians and the bikers themselves.

So it gives us uh kind of three paths of travel, whether you are on a in a car, whether you or in an automobile, um, whether you are on a bike, whether you are a pedestrian on the pedestrian and biking side, you can get back and forth between these two sides.

Uh, and then also you will be able to get from this top side where the bridge is down into the bike trails.

So that was an important element that we heard from folks as we were doing that engagement was that people still want to be able to access the trails and the trails the trail will go under this bridge.

So, as we get into this, I'm going to actually turn over the uh slightly more technical pieces of the floodway conditions to Steve to tell you a little more about that.

Sure.

Thanks, Jamie.

So uh this is the part where we connect a new bridge up here at Sixth Street to uh soldiers field.

So as we're building a new bridge, uh Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is involved.

Uh Army Corps of Engineers is involved, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is involved.

So uh we use the latest and greatest modeling techniques in terms of math and creating information about how the river uh floods through downtown.

So one of the things we've learned, and like maybe maybe to scroll down just a little bit.

So without any bridge, what did we learn through this process over the past 12 months?

We've been working on this.

The original FEMA maps, the math behind the printed FEMA flood maps that we've all heard referred to is about 30 to 40 years old.

We have new information.

Uh our engineering department, our consultants have been looking at previous floods since the original 1978 flood that caused the design of the flood levee control system.

And we've we've been able to dial in our model better than the map.

So the first thing we just want to point out to everybody is if new maps are printed today by FEMA, these areas in yellow would be added to the 100-year map that are not currently uh shown on the map.

So and why is that?

It's just we have better information in 2025 than we did, like you said, certain many decades ago when the maps were um originally created or last created for this area.

Um again for the bridge project.

Again, for the bridge project, we need to submit a permit.

Our next step will be later this week to submit a permit request to the Minnesota DNR, which eventually ends up with FEMA.

FEMA cares about the 100-year flood boundary or flood maps.

Later on through the project, uh we will also be submitting a uh map to the US Army Corps of Engineers.

The Army Corps of Engineers cares about our project because the flood city's flood control system.

They regulate that, they have regulated it since it was originally designed.

So we're talking with both entities, but just one of the so in the Army Corps cares about the 200-year event because that's what our downtown flood control system was designed to protect public property from flooding up to the 200-year event.

So that's the level of flood protection that exists today.

So essentially the FEMA map, the 100-year map, uh requires something called a clomar, which is just a conditional letter of map revision.

So federal regulations, what is a clomar required anytime there's a change to the 100-year regulatory uh flood elevation of greater than zero.

So that our bridge.

We work probably nine months trying to come up with different configurations of the bridge.

We have a rail spur on one side, Broadway Avenue on one side, so we have constraints there.

We looked at not putting piers to hold the bridge up in the middle of the river.

The problem was the length got so long, the bridge beam depth got too tall, and it started to impede on the flood weight because of that.

So what we've got it narrowed down to is an option that minimizes the rise to about an inch and a quarter during the 100-year event.

So, what does that mean specifically?

We've got all this flooding uh area through downtown.

The areas in purple will be the areas that will see that change of just an inch and a quarter for the 100-year event.

So everything in blue already gets wet when it rains, and we achieve the 100-year storm event.

So generally we've got localized areas along the river corridor at 6th Street, and then there's one small area of the parking lot in Soldiers Field that will be added to the flooding.

So we wanted to come here and just share that information through a project update.

Mike, if we can just move on.

Um, so we talked about we're also here to talk about 200 year storm event.

So the Army Corps cares about that.

Uh the cities, I've I've only been in Rochester year and a half, but I've already had it well beaten into me.

That uh those of you that are around the flood 78.

Uh, the requirements of the council at the time, and the city has said, hey, we're gonna protect private property from the 200-year event.

That was the control system requirement.

So we're proposing a smaller earthworm in the northeast quadrant of soldiers field, which Sheena will talk about in a minute.

And by pulling a berm in here, the berm area is shown in yellow.

And then the area in green is actually area that used to flood during the 200-year event, which there's two private property buildings here that we're talking about that our earthworm, which is not race, it's just a mountain dirt, but it holds back water.

Um, it's gonna actually provide some better protection of public property.

So uh, and I'll just point out why this map is up here.

So, again, 200-year event sees a rise above two and a half inches in water depth.

Everything in blue already gets wet in soldiers' field without us building a bridge.

The fringe areas in purple, these small incremental areas, those will be new areas that uh receive water that we've only had one 200-year event, and that was the 1978 event.

We have not had biggest events since then has been about a 25-year storm event along the floodway itself.

So, Rochester is not seen uh the same level of significant events.

So uh we're probably not used to seeing water in soldiers field at all, but this is what the math tells us, and it's told us this for several decades.

So, how how we're gonna achieve the the earth burn, Jamie's gonna touch on that.

Sure.

So, as Steve mentioned, the goal here would be to at the uh South End Umst Avenue within Soldiers Field would be to create this earthworm.

In some areas, it won't be very tall at all.

In other areas, it might be one to two feet because you know it's not if anybody has walked out there, it's not flat space.

So uh trying to create something that's holding back that wire.

Uh it be an even spot.

But and the goal of this again is to protect the private, those two private properties that would get wet in a 200-year flood event.

So this would be at the south end of uh soldiers field to protect those properties.

Um, in the that event that would be caused by uh us putting the bridge.

And there's an estimated cost of around 400,000.

The goal would be to actually do that um during this upcoming year, but obviously coordinating with park staff to understand when their busy times are we don't have it designed yet.

So there is, you know, there's things that need to happen before then and working around, you know.

Obviously, let's not do it um June 30th.

Uh so like there's uh uh coordination that happened within all of that, and then the idea is that we would restore it to a similar design or better than the existing conditions that are there now, and uh we work with the park staff to figure out exactly what that final design would look like as we move through that.

Questions on that portion of it or other parts of the project on the previous slide, it looks like uh on the berm you're adding a melt is trail.

Is that the intent?

It's currently a trail right now, so it's taken the current trail, elevating that trail, and making it all level basically.

Okay, it's the trail we just built here two years ago.

Oh, that's why I'm looking at all the picture.

Yeah, and Mark's yeah, just uh because I was on the council when this initially arose, and I was representing this area, and the neighborhood was very concerned about the traffic coming off this bridge going directly on six right through that area, especially when you have uh elementary school that basically blocks the traffic on that road during the start of school and finish of school.

Um we were kind of hoping that they would get that a right in right out in that area to stop people can cut through the neighborhoods.

Just I know you're not the ones involved with that, but just to make sure you're aware and you can bring it up at the point of we get to designing this thing just because of the fact is this is a walkable neighborhood, it's a very important neighborhood.

Yep, and this could uh do some damage to that, so please consider that.

We are past that point in the design.

I know I was at many of the meetings and brought it up and obviously not listened to, but that's well, I'm used to that.

And yeah, and that actually has to do with the type of road it is and can't be done.

Yeah, okay.

I have a question about the canopies.

The two pictures show very different canopies above the pedestrian biking way, bikeway.

So this one is much smaller, and the other one is much more like broad scale.

Which of the two were we actually looking at?

Yeah, you know, or is that to you determined?

Yeah, I think that's a great question.

So there the pictures we use are actually just from two different stages of the design process.

Okay, and we are currently uh in between 60% design and moving towards 100% design and working through that process, and that is still a question with a little TVD behind it.

So we don't actually have an answer to that question as we speak.

If we can get them all within budget, and we're struggling to do that, it would be the other version that the bigger bed.

Would be the newer uh or the most updated concept.

So this is the most updated, okay.

Uh, but actually, there's actually one that's even one more updated than this from uh how it looks standpoint.

Is the other one the smaller, the smaller one are those fabric or no all of them solid?

So all of them were safe to the solid material.

Okay.

Two questions here.

I'm gonna I'm gonna ask for a plain language translation of a hundred years, 200-year flood, whether that be like river level, what maybe how much rain would have to fall for us to see that.

I'm going to give you my interpretation of it, and then Steve can correct me.

And the reason that I say that is because I'm the one who does not understand it, and that's why I say I'll give you my like super layman's very so my understanding of it is it is the um it is the like a 100-year flood is like there's a one percent chance that we get that type of flood this year.

A 200-year flood means there's a 0.5% chance that we get that level of flood this year.

Like, so it's it's basically breaking like it is just not very likely that we get that level of flood.

Like the likelihood is very small.

It does not say how much it doesn't.

My understanding is though it doesn't give you a this is how much it would be.

Yeah, we do have a number.

We have 7.9 inches of rain in a 24-hour period.

How many point nine?

7.9.

Yes.

So at a hundred year old.

Yeah, that's what we're saying.

So we could estimate.

Well, I mean, nothing's saying there's danger of an estimations, right?

And like twice that would be.

I mean, just thinking a little bit of like Southeast Minnesota, Caledonia.

Um lots of places in the last two years have seen some in train falls.

Yes, they have.

Um, and it's not because it's there, you know, them.

It's just luck.

Look at the drawing bad thing.

And so when I look at these flood maps, reach them and understand them a little bit, but like colleagues are drawn.

Um, and then I I you know, I I think the other probleming question then as well is is it a common for us to um, even though this flood project was done many years ago, is it common for us to build burns and spend money on this to protect other private properties?

Um because that's what the goal is, right?

Is to protect the private property that we're recently built.

Yep, go ahead.

Mike's been here longer.

So yeah, trying to understand and draw, you know, precedence and understanding of it.

That's a great question.

So precedence-wise, the whole flood control program was bent to protect properties.

So the channelization levels we built elsewhere in the community, we're all done to protect property.

This is kind of one more step in that process.

We know an issue is being created.

We're going to solve that with this new construction of a bird.

So it's not, it's not a new idea.

It's not, it hasn't been done before.

This has all been done in the past, and we'll continue to do it in the future again.

Not even just beyond this project.

As we see an issue happen, we'll address it in whatever matter we need to, whether it's a burn or more channel or something different.

So the the idea is because we're installing this new branch.

We have an impact downstream, which raises upstream.

Excuse me.

We have an impact upstream, which raises the risk of these properties being inundated by water, which then is why we have this scope creep, if you will, of more things that we need to do.

Exactly.

Yes.

I appreciate that.

And there's different solutions that we'll see as part of this too.

And as Steve talked about, and Jamie talked about, can you do something in the channel?

Can you modify the bridge design to mitigate that?

And the answer was yes, but you got other consequences as a result of that.

So this is the easiest solution that was more cost-effective.

Just out of curiosity, the flood in 2007.

Do we know what that was considered?

So yes, in 2007, uh portions of the community did have about just about 100-year event, like out west of town.

Yeah, that was close to 100 year event.

There's no protection in that west end of town.

So again, water is row is really high, went through the city.

Once you restart their flood control measures, not an issue.

But again, in those isolated areas, it does happen.

2007, 2010, 2019, we all had events from other communities in different fashions, not quite as big as 2007.

But again, our flood control programs meant to design to handle that overall flooding event.

There's still going to be isolated areas that are going to happen.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Um, one thing I would just kind of add um Mark and Marty with the bridge looks great where you divide all that up.

But if the link project is just to the east, and you're bringing all that traffic back together, and it's like it's gonna be great for the bridge, but it's gonna be a mess when you bring that back together with the commuter spaces there.

Is there any accounting for is there space to route that differently?

Route the bikers further away from that space.

So with two things.

Um street in and of itself is what they call a state aid route.

So it's it's governed by the Minnesota DOT.

So they have there's actually special legislation that in terms of design standards that apply to Minnesota DOT.

And it it's it's part of the city's network of moving a higher level of transportation than the neighborhood street.

That's what the state aid route does.

So uh we can only dial back the design so much on this particular project.

We've as we've heard um through the engineering department and their projects around town, putting the bike lane protected behind the curb, separated from the traffic, is what most people prefer unless you're advanced rider and you're probably riding with traffic as an advanced rider.

So in this case, we actually uh about a week and a half ago had to uh go to the Minnesota DOT and get a design variance to build the multi-use trail, not have to take down street trees, not have to move your utility poles, which would have a ripple effect of getting more street trees to cut down.

So we really pushed hard to keep the multi-use path behind the curb on the north side of the road, and that's what will happen up and through the roundabout, and then you'll uh switch in this case.

If you're coming from the Slaughterly Park neighborhood and you're westbound towards downtown, you'll just keep riding straight.

You'll have your own space on the pedestrian bridge separated from traffic.

The city's also just about to start the South Broadway uh raise or build grant, uh, which is a design grant, and the intersection crossing at Stick Street will be safer, calmer traffic will be incorporated into that design.

So we're gonna get people to the bridge.

Uh what you'll get for pedestrian safety and bicycle safety across Broadway is what you have today, but there's a project that's just starting up that's going to try and enhance that traffic calming along that segment of Broadway and also improve those pedestrian crossings and bike crossings.

Okay.

All right.

Well, then um, I don't think we need any um action.

We're just receiving this report.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Thanks for your time.

Thank you.

And then we're moving on to old business.

Um monthly approval and so I hear a motion.

Motion.

Second.

The week.

Um all right, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, sign.

Motion carries unanimously.

And then we've got 7B, which is the uh parks and recreation year to date performance.

Um we have uh we don't need a motion for that.

We don't need a motion for that.

Any questions?

I actually have one, but I gotta pull it up here.

Um see where it is here.

Well, I guess I I did take a little bit of a better look at it.

Um all said and done, it of course looks pretty good and was well managed.

Um could you say what you're talking about?

The uh 7B parks and recreation uh financial performance here to date, and it runs through all the budgets of like what the balances are, which departments are over budget, which is not a specific totality.

And I have two questions.

The first one was just were there any surprises for um there were some large variances um in certain areas, and um were there any surprises that we're going to need to account for in the next year?

Uh probably the biggest area just ongoing is uh steering goal to profitability, and uh we're going to present uh that in detail next month in February.

Okay.

Um other than that, um we responded to a lot of uh needs over the past year.

That's probably reflected in any area of concern here.

Um we always address safety um and we try to respond best as possible.

So overall, that's kind of the picture of any area of concern on the budget when you go through actual nets that came out uh so yeah, and I was kind of surprised to see um there was a gap for golf.

Um it was pretty small.

50,000.

Um that include the soldiers field and all the other golf courses, or is that just for administration?

Uh it's it's all of golf, and and we're we're gonna really go into that until uh next week.

Or next next next month next market, yeah.

Okay.

That helps we that was my other question.

My second question was specific to go because I know we've made some really good headway there, but I wanted to make sure I was understanding how those numbers all come together.

Um anything else?

I probably should point out that this doesn't really reflect the actual year in.

Uh we don't close out the the year until around February, just to make sure all the encumbered uh funds are closed now for the year.

Yeah, usually there's a month to get middle center in December.

Right.

Make sure that everything is good too because there will be some revenue that'll be realized that's not showing up here as well.

Oh good.

All right.

Then that brings us to the consent agenda.

We have one item, Cutsky Bridge, Cutski Park Bridge Repairs, authorizing some construction and the amount to 53,808.

Um you want to pull that?

Marty.

Marty's gonna pull that one.

Um it's one agenda item, so I'm not gonna pass the other consent items.

Um I prepared to speak on that today.

So you have a specific question, Marty?

Oh, okay.

So it's a it's a bridge I think I cross at least four or five times a week, if we um and yeah, I might look at through the information.

It just said repair, but it doesn't say what the problem is and what they're gonna do.

So yeah, some more detail for you.

Um, the bridges right now, this bridge particularly was inspected by our public works team without a couple of issues that were concerning, not from a standpoint of safety issues, but if we want to continue to drive vehicles on them, like we do with our parked vehicles or police vehicles, et cetera.

Things need to be addressed.

And not just this particular bridge, we've got a series of bridges across our flood control system, which we just talked about, that provide access for the pedestrians as well as access for uh maintenance activities.

So as part of the process here, we had an analysis done by Wallace Holland Cash and Smiths to review the bridges themselves and provide a solution for repairs.

So that's what you're seeing here in front of you is that repair cost to do that with.

This is probably the first of several we'll see over the next several years that we'll find issues as we do more inspections on them.

So the intent though is to maintain our bridges.

If we do have to replace them, it's probably another two-thirds of the cost to build a brand new bridge, drop a new bridge on there.

That's just the cost of the bridge.

Now you're gonna drop the new bridge on there, bring it down, and mobilize it.

So it's probably gonna be two to three times the cost of all to do a new bridge.

So repairing is much more cost effective.

So what what is the repair they're gonna do?

Adding structural steel.

Sorry.

Structural stuff, yeah.

And what about the uh bridge decking?

Because it's that will be replaced at the current time.

Okay.

Yeah, we've we've gone to a path of generally replacing entire bridge sections, not just piecemeal boards over the years.

We used to do boards here and there, and it really was not very effective because the board started failing soon thereafter.

So we've gone to kind of holding on as long as we can, then replacing the entire deck at one time.

So the deck will be replaced when this is not.

Correct.

All right, thank you.

I move to approve second.

All in favor say aye.

I will go, same sign.

Motion carries, I voted unanimously.

Um that puts us at new and other business art for trails 2026.

So Arts for Trails, I thought it was a good idea to bring it back to you.

It's been several years since we've seen this.

And it's a program we work to develop uh with the art center and with some community members, early.

Actually, it was community members early on, and now it's with the art center to bring art into our park.

And that's one of our goals for our park system plans to bring art to our park.

In this case, here is both temporary and permit art we've done over the years.

Uh, this is an annual program where we uh work with them, they do a call for art, and I sit with them to along with other community members to select the art for a given year.

We have about five or six different locations across the community to place art, and depending on who wants what where, uh the art selected based on some of that information.

So this year we're we're bringing in three pieces of art, plus a bonus one of the current hearings at the Riverside Plaza area down by across from the government center.

We're made for another year as well.

So it's a bonus, it's a very nice piece.

Uh, but art is kind of by the beholder, just so you know.

And some things we all like, some things we don't like, but it is still art nonetheless.

And uh this year I have like all three pieces of art.

So uh I'm happy to present these to to the board for the review, and um more information.

If you'd like to see the piece, I can bring them up for you.

Um there's about 24 pieces that were reviewed, actually were uh submitted.

We reviewed 20 of them.

The other four or three, I think what that was out there was not deemed to be acceptable for the art uh quality or capability to be implemented.

So uh the three pieces we selected this year is a wool and chime, the very left-hand image there.

The second one is it's called three amigos, it's three uh eager uh down by mail uh landing behind Mayo Park.

The third is um it's unlabeled, but it's good uh sunshine and rays of sun, is what the image is.

That's pretty good size to be about 12 foot tall on the very right-hand side.

So all three of these pieces will be installed around June of this coming year, it will be in place for about a year.

And again, so we do this annually, but with uh with this new lot of new members out here, we bring it back to you just for some information.

Always remove um they are removed until we get some donated.

We had I think now we've had I think nine or ten pieces between donated and purchased and giving to the city of Rochester, yes.

Yeah.

Um many of these are designed to last but more than a year.

Um we look at that to make sure it can last a year.

Other ones like the egrets or this the sun and race uh area, those are all metal.

They would last a very long time.

Um we have got a few pieces that do start rusting, and we painted those, one being in Bear Creek Park that we got uh at one point.

This is probably seven, eight years ago now.

So yeah, they're meant to be there for a year.

Uh we have got pieces of permanently established as long as that okay.

Yeah, I noticed a few are still there, so um which is great.

I think.

Yep, there's one actually by Silver Lake um on the east side of the river there that has been in place now for two years, and we just decided to pull it out this past fall because it was delaminating uh to a point where we could not repair it.

All right.

That's anything we need to do on that.

No action specifically, just for your awareness.

Yep.

We issue the permit annually.

And then 10B is the art board meeting agenda planner.

Um add something from the do we did other new business with what the agenda plan is.

You can have something here.

Yeah, um I have a concern about um equity having to do with outdoor ranks.

Um there are no outdoor ranks in the southeast quadrant of the city.

And uh my question is is there a plan to get an outdoor rank somewhere in the southeast quadrant of the city?

Uh Solver Skield is the closest one if you live southeast.

Isn't that one in there?

No, not anymore.

Slack right.

There was they have they had a rank there that's used, I believe, just for um lacrosse.

So cross.

Yeah, that's the Bear Creek one.

Yeah, yes.

I can provide an answer if you like, or short answer if you like.

Um, yes, the Bear Peaks was it.

We did have IC there one one year, I think, or maybe two years.

Um we do have a plan, the park system call up and distribution of our ice rinks further out than what they are currently.

We've got several that have not been removed yet, like in Viking Hills that are Blacking Hills Park that um people still like that there, even though it wanted to be pushed out further to other community very far off what also has a deficiency in in park rink spaces.

So it's not just southeast that we're concerned about.

Um, I think there's two issues that we need to address.

One is capacity to maintain ice.

Uh, we get issues like this today where ice is melting critically, makes it very challenging.

Um we've had goals to build a permanent rank where you can ice it down, have a pavement surface that's easier to maintain.

Uh, that has not happened due to budget funding issues that may come up as another desire for the park system plan in 2027.

Um, also additional rank locations may come up in that same process.

We do understand the need, uh, but there's also an understanding that we aren't hearing a lot of demand for it either.

So it's kind of that balance of where do you put it and meet the demand and not hearing the complaints of where they're not.

So it's not an easy solution by any means, but uh it is on our mind.

Marty, were you just bringing that or did you get in the hand for it?

Well, we have to bottom we talked about earlier because of the uh high with the apartments and all the um kids that live in that area between the trailer courts and the fact because now that we're putting in splash pads and we thought it would be appropriate time to make sure we took care of that area also by having a rank.

Okay.

Just because there's no demand on the internet.

Right.

That's correct.

Yep, that's that's the hard condom that we have established to figure out where it goes and where it would serve the best.

Yeah, and it's just as Mike said, it's just our ongoing challenge of we'd love to just grow and put them out there where uh people can have uh greater access, but we just don't have the resources to do that, so it's a matter of strategically locating them where uh where there's access and demand.

I I I know Viking Park is gonna be a tough one because I have good friends that uh their their kids skate there.

Yeah, um and uh but I I've had uh long discussions with Mike about you know trying to maybe leave frog that somewhere where where it's uh you know more splitting the difference between uh neighborhoods, so um it'll be uh ongoing challenge.

We we appreciate if you do get feedback um uh from residents all.

Is there a map online that people can look at that shows all the upper ranks?

Um just for ease of access.

Not our websites only we have the doors.

Yeah, if you went to the directory and clicked on breaks, it would populate which part all the ranks.

Yeah, okay.

Okay, and then there is uh skating page that has a list with addresses, but that facility directory would have a way that you could just pick that in men in the year show you the parks on it.

Okay, yeah, it's just like what they've done cooked parks.

The park used to have ranks.

Now they don't, but it looks like the city had plowed away uh area and flooded it because there's a rink there, but it's not with the boards and things of that.

If we could do some of that, that would be helpful.

Yeah, we do that just to see kind of what demand there is.

We did it out in Southern Woods area a couple years ago, and again, very few people used it.

Yeah, but again, we try different locations to see what dash of sticks there.

Um, there used to be multiple rings in the downtown four along with the near northwest, and that's kind of where the desire was Silver Lake Cook Park uh used to play in that as we've gotten grown, we pushed them out further.

And again, we'd like to do more of that.

And again, we'd like to do more breaks overall, but again, capacity and staff and time.

And there used to be a rank uh at Mayo High School.

Yeah, two of them, yeah.

I have a question for my understanding of but do we ask the community?

Like what do they want?

Like, you know, south.

I mean, I hear assumptions made about like you know, what is this neighborhood want, um, questions and so I was wondering um if we make those kinds of efforts to actually have gauge from community members.

There's been various surveys, and I know Mike has like a map that was put out with Olco that I don't know there was some talk about pickleball and basketball courts then too, and um kind of just geographically does lay out where things are.

Sometimes it's harder to figure out I think where the kids are that are gonna play and that are gonna be after that, and then by the time we address it, um they're sort of aged out or moved their whatever.

We're not that fast, unfortunately.

Yeah, I would say that prevents or actually our our parks just to plan sort of our parts of the plan actually lays out our goals for what we want to have.

You know, we want to have a rink in each district, we want to have a court in each district, so we want to have this amenities in a district where people can go, not drive too far to where those amenities are, but it would not be in every neighborhood, it would not be like we had in the 70s mark.

So we can't be that too.

So but yes, so we do have that, and we do get input.

So again, we do the park system plan update in 2027.

We'll start at the very beginning of 27.

We'll have lots of engagement, and that will come up as far as what do you want from Edis, where you want them, those kind of conversations will happen.

Yeah, refresh what we already have.

All right.

Um other points of discussion or things that we could be putting on the artboard agenda planner.

I think uh I just wanted to ask my compliments on to the park staff.

I attended the international game of on that Sunday between Switzerland and Denmark.

Uh well attended people were seemed very, very happy.

Um so I think not only would that was very successful.

I hope you get a lot of kulos for it.

I know they're getting ripped in some of their communities, but I attended this one purposeful to make sure to see what was going on, and I thought they did an excellent job.

So staff, please take that back to your people as well.

If I've been out to Grand Marina because I had friends from the cities that came down with their grandkids and things and attended those.

The only thing you get ever a complaint on, and it's the it's like it's winter.

You got to keep the ice cold is how cold two and four are.

Or yeah, two and four.

Yeah, those are like eight.

Four is right two and three.

Yeah, one and four, I believe.

But two, but that's the only component here.

But you try to explain to them that it's winter.

But you know, it all in even the parking arrangements they've tried to make better on the uh west side.

The families that have come down have been very pleased, and I just wanted to also throw in that international event.

Uh that was very cool, worked out very, very well.

Got to see some very talented occupations.

I I think we should talk about Jen Hill Safety, maybe since the gentleman brought it up specifically.

I did take my kids there this uh this year when we hit the nice big one, and uh the big snowfall, and my kids did exactly that warm right up the middle of Corinne.

Why do you do walk on the side?

So I really feel like some kind of traffic control might be helpful, can't always affect you know what direction the slide goes in, you know, nature will do its thing, but maybe some kind of the human element could could be worked on, trying you know, like break payment arrow going up.

I just thought that was natural.

I don't know, you know, like right.

I mean I don't know, but I appreciated the idea that I've seen my children climbing up the middle, and I'm like, what are you doing?

Yeah, they both I mean I'm more worried about I appreciate that he said there used to be snow fences because that at least says what we used to do.

And I've I've never seen snow fences there, but that must be amazing.

But I know as been there the last 25 years, yeah.

I was a kid, no problem.

Here we come.

Well, I know I'm gonna be looking at it.

Uh when you have moguls and you have a pole that is not secured.

I mean, I had a young man die hitting one of those ski.

So I take that part seriously, and it doesn't take a lot to protect a child from hitting a pole.

You know, it's usually you know ski hills that I've seen it, but I certainly would like to see some type of a report on what we're doing, uh, and addressing the concerns that that gentleman had.

Uh, do we need an action uh from the board for that to happen in terms of a motion, or can the uh Paul can you dear folks do it if uh we have consensus from the board that would be adequate?

Okay, yeah.

I would think that's not me.

That's fine.

Can come back with Mike uh February, or we'll come back with an answer of what we're doing.

Yeah, yeah.

I'll be very candid right now.

We're not doing much, and we haven't for many many years.

Well, it doesn't so it is, right?

But if you brought up is very, very serious.

It it is, but the question that is always come up in our conversations though, has been whose responsibility is that.

I mean, yes, we have we have trees in the park, we have poles in the park.

Um, we don't dictate where people are sliding any point in time, but you start wanting to dictate where we're sliding to and how we're sliding.

Um, then it's a free-for-all no matter what.

And we are expecting them to take on liability.

So if we start regulating it, then we are actively trying to miniature.

Yeah, that's a nice thought.

But I'm gonna tell you right now, it won't hold up in court.

I'd I'd go to I I would just say that I'm looking at uh a Google Maps image from it is 2019, uh, but there do appear to be about three trees in the boulevard, and there are two um red signs posted that say do not slide into roadway, and then below that um it says four-year safety, adults must supervise children, be considerate of others and use caution.

So just wanted to throw that out there.

Yeah, and again, those are those are interesting things when you have signage like that.

But if you're not actively trying to prevent it, but you're providing that resource as a recreational element for your community.

I would say that you might have liability there.

I think that maybe some education around liability because let's just do it more morally.

Don't climb trees, don't get in the water, easy to drown.

I mean, we're well that that's an interesting point, yeah.

No, we're providing the activity.

I think the park is there and people just do it.

No sled hills, that's where that ends.

Right.

I I think the argument could be made on play equipment too, right?

Like play equipment is dangerous if it's not used properly.

Right.

But I do feel like there are probably small things, like if you if when they came and kind of mounted up the snow at the bottom so that people don't slide off into the road, which is fair.

It's there every year.

I've seen it.

Maybe just make a little TP around the polls or the way from the like I don't know if there's like small kind of nuanced things that could be done that are not.

Well, what we just suggest that would make it different in soldiers field.

We had a grandmother come up and talk about her children.

Yeah, her grandchildren.

And ask for a fence.

Well, hey, you know that that river's down there and that water's wet.

And if you fall into it, by golly, you could get hurt.

But we didn't look at it that way, did we?

I did.

I mean, I think we're getting off track a little bit.

If we want to have a steady session about risk mitigation and liability, that would be fine too.

I think it's well within Mike's ability to provide a report back on what we are or are not doing.

Um Michael Spindler Craig over here too is is a good resource.

May I ask he brought out some sort of point about hospital room visits because of sledding?

I don't know if there's that up there.

That might be something that we're not giving.

Oh, you're probably right.

Well, you can't get the people's information, but if you're seeing at least a volume or I don't know, if you're able to request it, but I doubt you'll get it.

I was gonna use the line of scooters for an example.

Lion scooters does a beautiful job of throwing all liability out the window because it says if you're not 18, you're not supposed to write you're not supposed to have passengers on there.

You're not supposed to write on the sidewalk, but have you seen the lime scooters on the sidewalks?

Representing the downtown neighborhood at one time.

We had problems with that all the time.

Well, and I've seen them as well, they're a liability.

Oh, there are liability everywhere, but there's how many accidents where people hit potholes and fall off, and we tried to get that information from the hospital, so we could not because of HIPAA.

Bringing this back into focus, I think more of like I think my the root of my question is more of like if there's some sort of data that we can tie it back to of like a community impact, and maybe that's probably more of the good of it.

So I wouldn't be interested in seeing if we had anything like that that can kind of help us have a deeper understanding of you know, is there something here to this that should be considered and thought about?

But um, I think that was maybe my question.

So I think part of the answer to that question by May just real briefly is I don't recall seeing data like that.

We did our park system plan the last time, and I don't recall um if there was data, I'm not sure how you'd justify it or pin it to a public park on specific location.

Yeah, so we could we can do some searching and see if there's any anecdotal information.

Yeah, I'm sure there's accents out there on sledding hills.

No, that's probably some general state stack or state uh data someplace, but again, bring it back down to our local level.

I just don't know if it's there.

Do you see calls that are rarely?

This is the first incident in the 12 year subvention.

We've been here that long.

Yeah, we we had we actually had one, it might have been before you were here, actually.

Yeah, uh same with Judd Hill.

Uh neighbors, they want us to protect the neighbor's fence.

We said it's not our fence, we're not touching it.

Yeah, it's the same same conversation as why are we protecting the people that are out there using the hill?

And we point back in state statutes support that people have an inherent liability to manage themselves, and it's not our responsibility to do so.

Now, again, we should take due care and make good efforts and make sure things are out there, but I I guess that's my point.

Yep.

You know, I I understand the other side of that equation, but again, I guess we can look at what's legally right and we can look at what's morally right, and maybe that's where we differ at times.

Uh, but I do think we have a responsibility as a park board to not only look at the legalities, but also where the moral implication comes into play in various situations that we have to deal with.

Oh, you think one more I'll just use the the idea, not your idea, the the idea of a snow fence around the pole.

Yeah, well, it may sound like it's a great idea.

You have four posts around holding that snow fence up now, create another hazard.

Yeah, yeah, creating a different hazard.

It's a cushion usually around thing too.

Uh going on with that, Mike.

Well, you put the fence up and then it's damaged, and somebody goes through and gets hurt and the fence hadn't been repaired.

How much more part time does that take our staffing to go out there?

And that I do think it's something we should look at if this is an issue.

Yeah, but I see this mitigation actuarial sciences, yeah.

Yes, well it's there.

Any other topics that should be at least proposed on the uh uh agenda planner.

So February is full.

Yep.

March is pooled.

Go change 26.

Uh should be uh I mean it's quite yeah, February that's uh golf and uh aquatic.

Oh yeah, sorry, I'm looking at the wrong one.

Yeah, that's can't districts.

I have perfect.

I'm just not my no key.

Yeah, I mean keep my own cycle.

Um we'll we'll drop 24 off and we probably have to 25.

We always keep it for it.

It's good to look back and just see how we can find things on the um minute the end of the minutes.

So yeah.

Oh all right.

Um hearing no other park agenda planner items.

I'll move we adjourn.

All in favor?

Good luck.

Good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.