Park Board - Regular Meeting

Yeah, we're good. All right. All right. All right. Since it is 630, we'll get this meeting of the Dilworth Park Board rolling here on September 9th, 2026. We have no guests in attendance, so we will do a call to order. We'll start with Tim and kind of work our way clockwise around here.

Tim Tolleson. Lyle Curranta.

Jerrica Lyon.

Andrew Randall.

Terry Ehlers.

Angela Miller from staff.

All right, first item on the agenda tonight is the agenda approval for tonight. I want to make one little addition to it, kind of at the end of the community center playground update, and I emailed Angela on this, just to form a committee for the tree lighting thing, since the next meeting won't be until November. We should probably do that sooner than later, so we're not running into issues.

And November is Veterans Day, our normal meeting, right?

I don't know. I haven't looked that far. We can check on that. This is Lyle.

I'll make a motion to accept the addition of tree lighting committee discussion as 5D.

Perfect. Do we have a second?

I'll second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Next item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes from July 8th. I'll give you a minute to look through that, and then when we're ready, if we have no additions, subtractions, anything that way, we'll look for a motion to approve the minutes from July 7th.

They're not in there, it was just in the packet. I didn't put it in the paper, just a few things, but I can pull up here.

I make a motion to approve the minutes.

Okay. Lyle, I'll second the motion.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Next item on the agenda for tonight is the first item on the discussion, the Paws in the Park event on September 24th. That's coming up quick.

Yeah. I'm going to be honest, I haven't had a lot of time to do things. It's been kind of crazy, but it's coming together. There's not a lot really left to do. I think the biggest thing is if we are going to be handing out any gift cards, we need to secure a sponsor, which had been discussed before. And then I'm still finishing up the flyer, which was also in the packet. If you hadn't seen it, I can bring it up here. Just kind of redid it a little this year. Not as much on it. I was hoping to do like a link to the website with more of the details and stuff. Like I said, this is just a draft still. They kind of give you an idea of what it would look like. Still trying to put some of the logos on there, some of the people that are supporting the event at the top. I couldn't get ahold of anybody about the corporate races, so I don't think we'll be doing that again this year. Let's see. The shelter pets, we have that Turtle Mountain coming. Amber was gonna reach out to the other one, so I'm not sure where she is with that. And then the fur fixers, is anybody? I can't remember if Amber was doing that too. Melanie was going to talk to wigs and whiskers about being there, and we haven't heard from them yet either, but we have the ice cream truck We're going to get some of those scooby snacks where you've decided not to do food because they just always seem to have a lot of leftover stuff When we had the lions do it local lions So we thought we'd do the little scooby snacks like the whole bag snacks and then some bottled water Maybe some ice or something for so there's at least something there to eat I have reached out to some vendors and they'll be there. And then the Mutts Unleashed lady, Michelle, will be there. She brings that 4-H utility or agility equipment. She'll be there as well. And Local Lions wants to be there as well to hand out dog treats and... just be a part of the event. So they will be there. Starlight was going to be there?

Starlight will be there. The Red River North Dog Obedience Kennel Club is waiting until their board meeting on the 22nd to decide. I said, all right, well, let me know. More the merrier.

We'll make room, right? Of course, I have confirmed the police department and the fire department to be there, and then we also have the pet photographer will be there too. And then we have a few giveaways. Jericho bought a bunch of dog toys last year. We think that was probably going to be like just a handout or a door prize. There was a lot of that.

Like a handout.

Yeah, just like a giveaway is like first. So many people.

That's what I was doing, the first box of 50, and then I went back and got the second box of 50. So I know myself, I put out 100 of them, so I don't know. Something else besides me was passing on too, but I can't remember.

Yeah, I'm not sure how many we have total. I haven't counted them. I did do a little inventory to kind of see what we have. I don't remember how many, but there's quite a few. I would say we have probably at least 50, 60, 70. Probably. There's quite a few. They're like a little candy, like Twizzlers and Hershey bars and I don't know, like squeaky toys or something. So it'll be fun. At least I'll give away anyway. But again, if we're gonna have door prizes with gift cards, we just need to secure a sponsor. So if anybody, I don't know if anybody's been talking to anybody or has any ideas, that's just something we would still need to finish up. Other than that, it's just people coming and setting up in general. And we'll have the pop-up dog park, of course, as well.

This is Tim. I think since our last meeting, that Bel Air Kennels, I think, sold.

I was going to mention that too.

Has anybody reached out to them? Because I think I heard that they're planning on kind of going back to what Bel Air used to be where it's not just kenneling but training and grooming and doing all of that. So I didn't know if we wanted to reach out to them or if we reach out to them, they say they can't, maybe we can talk about next year kind of a thing. Okay.

I guess I didn't, I knew that that property, so I guess I wasn't aware of what they were going to do afterwards.

Yeah, it sounds like there's a family that's planning on going back to everything that they used to do.

Oh, okay. Sounds like I could reach out to them, see if they at least want to come and get their presence known or whatever. Anything else to share? No? Okay. Well, if anybody knows of a business that would want to sponsor, so we could have some gift cards to hand out. Other than that, we could hand out a few items as prizes. The gift card, I guess, is where it gets to be the sticky point. We'll just keep looking for that, then.

Maybe you talked about it last meeting, I wasn't here, but is that a change? It's not a change.

It's something we shouldn't have been doing all along. But anyway, I know it's inconvenient. It's not, but yeah, we're just, you can't use city tax dollars to buy gift cards. I guess it's just, I could see how maybe some people might not find that the best use of our money. You know what I mean? Yeah.

But if I understood it right, if a business gives the gift cards without the city or the park board asking for it, then it's okay.

Right.

So we can't ask to donate a gift card.

I guess that's kind of a gray area, I guess. They can donate it to the event. It just wouldn't be able to go through the city in general. But if they offer to, like, hey, we want to give you... That's fine. And then we would put that as a sponsor amount and we could purchase gift cards with that. But yeah, technically we're not supposed to. Technically we're not supposed to, but there are some gray areas. So we're going to try to work in those areas. We just can't buy the gift cards. It's just, it kind of gets like flagged at like audits and things like that.

So. IT COULD BE AN OFFICIAL PART BOARD COMMITTEE OR SPONSORING GOING OUT TO SOLICIT. YOU KNOW, YOU HAPPEN TO BE SITTING SOME PLACE TALKING WITH SOMEBODY AND SAY, YEAH, YOU KNOW, WELL, IF YOU'RE EVER INTERESTED, YOU KNOW, YOU CAN DO GIFT CARDS. BUT NOT LIKE HERE AND ASK FOR IT. AT LEAST THAT'S THE WAY I THOUGHT AMBER EXPLAINED IT. SEEMED TO MAKE SENSE.

I really don't know what else to tell you. I know it's a hard spot to be in. It's just because Park Board is a city organization, so we have to follow that city rule. Who all is gonna be able to be there? Everybody here? Well, yeah, Lyle, you said you couldn't, but you're okay.

I'll get there when I get there.

Okay, you got it? Sounds good. Good to know.

Hopefully not flying in last minute.

The only ones I know is Nathan and me. They can't be. I don't know.

Right. I think you're right, yeah. He couldn't be there either, yeah. That's fine. I mean, I'm pretty sure that Melanie can be there, so... So there will be plenty. I think we'll have enough people to do it. Like we don't really have a lot of organized activities. There's a lot of people coming and seeing what's available, right? So that's what we're going to go with. Anybody be able to come a little early to help set up?

Maybe put some tables out, things like that? I can be there like 4.30. 4.30? Yeah.

All right.

Well, it starts at six. Yeah, so maybe like five. Five should be more than enough. Yeah.

I should be able to be there at five.

Yeah, let's plan on five. Okay.

All right. All right. I think we got that taken care of.

I think so.

All right. Okay. Next item on the discussion for tonight is the Ash Tree Park update.

Yeah, so the last time we talked, we just wanted a few things changed, and so that is in the, I do have a couple images, and the proposal cost in the packet that you have there, so you can take a look at that. We just wanted a couple things traded out, so that's what we had requested, and you can see kind of what they brought in. So I'm just doing whatever I thought about what they suggested, which I think everything looks pretty fun in general, right?

Yeah, this here is what we talked about last time. So that's what this estimate is?

Yep, and that's, yep, the estimate is for this, yep.

So...

So I guess our next step is, if we're good with this, we'll of course have to take it to council. They're still kind of discussing the community center as well, which we'll get to when we get there. Obviously at this point, it's not gonna probably happen this summer, so I'll have to reach out to the church and let them know that probably next summer, hopefully, since we do have this, because we're kind of obligated to do this after that contract. Yeah, it's just a matter of if this is, everything looks good, and then I'll just, like I said, I'll bring it to council, and everybody likes what they see. If they want to take anything out. Not a lot has changed, really, but.

No, I'm just curious how it's going to fit in there. I know, I. I just can't visualize it yet.

I mean, it is kind of a bigger space than I think we realize when you drive by, but they took the measurements. I don't have any doubts at all, at will, but.

It's just more looking at this and looking out there, and you're like.

Yeah. Yeah. Maybe everything is smaller than we think that we're looking at. I don't know.

Oh, I think it'll be a nice upgrade to that area.

I think so, too. It'll be a nice, yeah, change over there. All right. Any other thoughts or comments on that one? And then I'll try and get that on the agenda for the next council meeting for them to approve that.

All right. Okay. Moving on. Community Center Playground Update.

Yeah, so there are a few changes. I think in the plan that you see there is pretty much just some of the colors were changed. So I brought it to the council. They kind of discussed it. They are concerned about it going over the budget and having to like dip into that. additional fund, I guess. But they do like the fact that we are trying to make this a selling point at the community center. That we're trying to bring revenue in by having this playground and birthday parties so that they do see the merit in that. So there were a couple of things they had to look into. So first of all, it was give the price, once you get to a certain price, you have to go to bed. Everything has to go to bed. And we were like this close. And so they were kind of questioning whether we should. So when I mentioned that to Weber, they actually just ended up lowering the price for us. So the proposal that we have now is actually a little bit lower than it was. That was one of the concerns. And then they also had to be on the state bid list, and they were. So that was good for the community center one. So it's still kind of not in stone yet, not completely sure. I'm sorry. the right page here. My mouse isn't working.

Is there still known hurdles that we need to get over?

We still need to have council sign off. They didn't completely sign off. They wanted to know some of the answers to the questions. Perry is fine with it. He's like, We need to dip in. He's like, I think this is a good reason to dip into that extra funds, kind of like almost like a savings or whatever. And so he's fine with it. It's just kind of getting everyone on board. They pretty much planned for this already to be in there. They've already, you know, they're starting to like put things in place for the playground, planning where like the electronics for that game will be. So I think this is going to go. but it's not official yet. So I have been directed to ask them how long the proposal is good for so that we can start planning if we need to go into next year until the decision is made for sure. That's kind of the highlight, but it's pretty sure, but we just need to see. The other thing that came up is the flooring here which they only have that soft play cork board, I don't know what you would call the flooring, by the entrances, because it's only where it's required, where somebody could fall, right? Everything else is enclosed. So the rest of the floor, that was the question. So now they were planning on doing the whole flooring and the special playground flooring, that this proposal only has a section, so what do we do with the rest of the floor? So that's another thing that came up, is like, is it just concrete, is it treated, is it carpet, is it something else? And so all this varies, of course, with cost. And yeah, so that's kind of part of the construction discussion. But again, part of that would be coming out of that The construction budget wouldn't necessarily be like the playground, like out of park board funds, but that's the other thing. And then we had to look at the lighting and we don't think that should be an issue. Yeah, any questions? It's been a while since we had this meeting, so I was trying to think about it today, all the things that we discussed. There has been a lot of back and forth. But like I said, everybody likes it. It's just there's some final things to kind of make sure we're okay with spending extra money. They're going through the budget process right now, trying to decide where they're budgeting money for the city in the next year. So this is actually a pretty big part of that discussion, because that's a little more than obviously that was budgeted to start with.

Well, if you look at the first plan that was there, and then looking at this, I mean, there is a huge difference, I think, for the better.

Like in the pricing and stuff?

No, from before we even got into these, the original like little... place it there and a little slide over there kind of thing.

The original plan where it was just like a slide and, you know, right, yes, this is much better.

And it shows where the value is.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Right. This is pretty much down to it and still has something where people would want to rent for events, you know, or have things. Mm-hmm. Because that's the whole thing is you've got to have something in there if it's going to be a moneymaker because if there's nothing there... Ain't nobody knocking at the door to use it, so.

Right.

Yep.

Yeah. So, anything else? The other thing is I did ask, we had kind of talked about, can we tuck it into a corner? They didn't really suggest that. They said they could get as close as they could, but it has to be at least 18 inches between the edge of the system and the wall, which at that point, I don't know that we'd want, I don't know.

What's that, a foot and a half?

Yeah, like, so a kid could get back there, and I don't know. At that point, do we just want someone to be able to run around it?

Barriers, I guess.

Right, yeah.

Between there. If it's only a foot and a half.

Right. Exactly, yeah. So they didn't give me a reason behind that, but they said it would be a minimum of 18 inches.

I wonder if it's for maintenance reasons to be able to get back there.

That could be, especially if you're going to anchor it and you need to be able to get to something later. That makes sense. What do you think of the color? I said kind of like tan and grays because that's kind of the colors we're seeing in the community center. But I thought there should be some color. So I said the green and they have the yellow in there too. And some of the elements are just the colors that they are.

I think that's bright and cheery and look good under lighting. You don't want to make it dark, dark. That's the old way. So, no, I think that's good. The colors are all right.

Okay, yeah.

So they just basically had to sign off on it and then it'll happen?

Yep, just have to get the council official sign off on that. Like I said, they asked to find out how long the proposal's good for, so I'll just talk to them about how long they would be willing to give us this price, because I'm guessing there's a chance it might go to next year, but...

Was there anything the council wanted us to look at, or is it just a waiting game at this point?

Yeah, it was more of a money thing. It wasn't really anything to do with the system itself. Of course, the flooring thing came up again, but I don't think that'll be, well, something will be figured out, whether it's just concrete or something, the concrete floor with the finish on it or something. But yeah.

Something to maybe, I don't know how to word it, but the flooring, This is going to wear out after time. So, I mean, I'm kind of wondering from Weber, then what? Then we rip up the entire floor and have to replace a new system?

Well, at some point you could replace the whole system, but you can order pieces and replace them. That is how it's been explained to me. So, like, if there's a crack in the slide, you should be able to order a new slide and get that installed.

So, essentially, because it's inside, it's not going to, like, the quality's not going to go downhill like something that's outside?

Well, definitely, if it's not in the elements, it'll last a little bit longer. I don't remember what they said how long they would expect it, but I think it was, like, 20 or 30 years like it should go pretty long like I said pieces would have to be replaced as things happen you know like things might break or whatever but you wouldn't need to replace the whole thing like you can get parts ordered and replaced so but the life of the system itself should be a while they were yeah they were telling me somebody else that they had that It worked for many years. It was a long time, like decades. I can't remember if it was 20 or 30. And they finally just changed it because they needed something different. It's not because the equipment wore out. It was because they just wanted something different. And so they ordered a new system then. Yeah. So I guess I don't know, you know, with it being inside a building, how that would go, how that would get replaced in the future.

It has a long life expectancy.

It should be fairly long. I feel like we should get some good use out of it. If anything, I feel like if we get bored or something, we might at some point maybe want something different.

And we've talked about adding to it over the years too, right?

Yep. And that was the one nice thing with this one versus the other one was we had some space around it because the other one was pretty tight, unfortunately.

So this one gave itself to expansion where you can...

Right where you could add more elements later on. Maybe not to the structure itself, I guess I'm not sure how that would work, but maybe in the room. There'd be more, if we try to keep things tucked into by a wall, we might have room to expand and put other elements in later.

Okay then.

Okay. Capacity's still 58 kids, so that's still quite a few kids.

All right. Any other comments on the community center update? All right. Hearing none, we'll move on. So last item on the discussion, I just wanted to form the committee for the tree land event. We don't have to discuss all the details tonight, nor do I really want to. I think it gets quite lengthy. But just to start reaching out to some vendors, I'm not quite sure how far out they book for the sleigh rides and stuff that way.

Usually right after the pause in the park is when I start reading out about the holiday stuff. So, yeah.

Yep.

is the tree lighting?

Good question.

It's usually the first, it's the week after, first week after Thanksgiving, right, the Tuesday or something.

So you're talking December, well, December 1st is Tuesday.

Is it Tuesday or is it, yeah, it must have been a Tuesday that we've been doing it on. I don't know.

I would have to look back at my notes.

It was a Tuesday or a Thursday. Yeah. I think it was a Tuesday. I don't know.

Because if you guys told me, I completely spaced it out.

I feel like Wednesday we always had issues with church stuff.

It was Tuesday last year. I think it's the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving is usually what it is. December 1st. December 1st. Do we like that then? Yep.

Let's go with it.

I'd like Tuesday. I'd like the second on Wednesday. You know. Okay.

Yeah, because I know last year we had that blow-up thing that I was in. I'm more than happy to do that. We might just need something different. I don't know if I can get the zipper to work again.

Oh, okay.

Because, yeah, we'll leave that at that.

Yeah, I remember you coming up and telling me about it. I was like, oh, boy.

I may have hand-stitched that in there last minute. So the fact that it made it a couple hours, great. So that might be something to think about because I don't remember if we still have that. Whatever Nate wore that couple years ago, that gingerbread.

The gingerbread. Yeah, we have the gingerbread.

I think we had both of them last year, didn't we? I feel like gingerbread was missing last year and never made an appearance. He never made an appearance.

No, I don't think it was missing as much as he just did not put it on. Yeah. Maybe he couldn't find it, but it was there. I brought it over. It was there, but anyway.

Yeah, that is something.

It doesn't matter. But yeah, we still have the gingerbread costume. When I was packing everything up, it was in there, so.

Yeah, I mean, honestly, I'm more than happy to just chair it or whatever and send out an email next week and then let's start putting stuff together for it sooner or later. Because I want it to drag out into November and then all of a sudden we're crud. Right. Sort of thing. So I guess I will see if anybody else wants to be on that committee and go from there. I can do it again.

Okay. I can do it.

I usually just showed up and did all the heavy work, moving the benches and everything out of that little warming house. And then I did the fire rings and got them done up. And I don't know, that's what I've been doing all the other years, just kind of show up and do all that heavy work and then working with lighting the fires and that. So I don't know if that's a committee thing or not. I mean, I just did it.

I just think it's more just the planning. If there's anything else we want to add differently to it.

Right. That's good. I was going to bring up, is email a good way to communicate? If everybody would prefer to text, and sometimes I feel like it's, I don't know, not a lot of chatter about what the plans are. Would that help? Is email not our preferred choice? I'm fine with whatever. I'm fine with texting.

Okay.

Okay. Would you be okay with Dext?

Well, when I swung my money, that was only the second time in the three and a half years I've been on the board that I couldn't open the emails.

Oh, right. You didn't mention that.

I don't know. I mean, I tried and tried, and it's just, you know, it would open, but it would be, I call it hieroglyphics. You know, there was no common sense to it. But that's only the second time in the three and a half years I've been here, so...

Well, just like when we have the committees for the events, just want to make sure that everybody's getting the email or the message in a timely manner. And I know some people just don't check their email a lot. I mean, I don't check my personal email very often at all, so I can see how that would be a thing.

I'm good with anything.

Okay.

I never get to it.

Okay. Which is sometimes... Well, we'll try the texting for the holiday event and see how that goes. And if we want to go back to email, we can. Sometimes that may be easier, but...

So that being said, if we're going to text, can I get people's numbers? I will send that over.

Okay.

The other part on that, Angela, not to cut Tim off here, do we have a list of what we did in the past? Yes. So that way we can kind of...

Maybe what I'll do is I'll send an initial email, kind of what we've done in the past, so you can kind of see and decide if it's something we're going to keep doing or not or whatever, and then we can go from there. And then just we can go into text for like a quick little, I just found out about this, or I had this idea or something, and then we can all get in more time in a manner.

Perfect.

Okay. I was just going to say, how do or who chooses the person who lights the tree? How is that?

Oh. Because when do we usually so we could definitely discuss that the November meeting with some ideas.

Yeah. Because I hate to be the one that says, hey, you do it. And then, yeah, yeah, you better be voted on.

That's what I suggest that. Well, I'll put that on the agenda for the November meeting. Anybody come with some suggestions?

Can we also set a November meeting, or are we going to do it on Veterans Day? I'm assuming you don't want to, because I'm assuming you have it on.

I don't know. I was going to check the calendar, but I can't get to anything because I don't have my mouse. It isn't working. November 11th is supposed to be the meeting. Let's not do it on Veterans Day. Should we do it the Tuesday or the Thursday then of that week?

Hmm.

Well, I have no preference.

Neither are.

Right now, both work for me.

I mean, I can get here after my work. My work goes until 6. I can beat cheeks to try to get here, so like a lot of others do. I'm not saying I'm the only one.

Let's go Tuesday then.

All right, yeah, and we'll get that situated. I'll worry about that more next week. Okay. That's a next week item right now. Got to tackle a few other things first.

Do we want to check with people who weren't here to see if they want to be on the committee too?

Yeah, I can send a message to them about...

Anybody else wants to? Yeah. I feel like the hard part is there's been a few members that have done a lot of them, so I'm looking to my right over here. Let's give her a little break.

Right. Sure. Which is Lyle. Yeah. Yeah. WHICH I AGREE WITH YOU.

YEAH. SHE'S DONE WONDERFULLY.

BUT THERE'S ONLY SO MUCH WONDER WOMAN CAN DO AS WELL. SHE HAS TO PUT HER FEET UP. BUT MY THOUGHT WAS, YOU KNOW, ESPECIALLY WHEN SHE'S DONE ALL THE COOKIE STUFF, IS IF AND EVERYTHING INSIDE, IF THAT COULD BE, MAYBE THAT WOULD BE SOMETHING WE COULD REACH OUT TO THE LINE ASSIST TO HELP. UC HOPE DOES HAVE THEIR STAND OUTSIDE THE BUILDING. you know, where they kind of had their tables set up there on the sidewalk, and more of an outside thing, but between the two of them, See, so what you do, it takes two groups to replace one juror, because that's what I was thinking, is they could do that, you know.

We could definitely consider that, yes. Yeah, because, I mean, you know, you deserve a break.

No, she does. She does. What are you talking about? I get the break being inside.

Well, you can still be inside. It's just you don't have to worry about organizing, managing, or you just hang out and relax.

Yeah.

I will check with UC Hope. Two, just for the committee. I don't remember. I don't think we, they did very good last year, but that's not really the purpose of them being there.

Well, they were outside too, which, you know, may.

They were inside food? They did food, right?

Yeah, they were inside. Yeah.

I thought I remembered that.

No, they were inside doing food.

Okay.

Maybe, yeah. Not a whole meal, maybe just having snacks and something available, and then that's quite such an investment maybe. You know what I mean? Something to think about.

Yeah.

The other thing I was thinking about with the tree-laden event, I mentioned this to Terry at work today just because it was on my head. We've always done the Moorhead Choirs sang. I can never remember the reason why we haven't had DGF do it.

Do they have a group that does Christmas carols?

It'd be the high school choir.

And we asked one time and they said no because that was going to be a Wednesday, actually, I think. They couldn't do it on Wednesdays. And then it's a, like, they can't force kids to come after school hours.

I was just wondering if we reached out earlier, might we have better luck with that? No disrespect to the Moorhead, they do a great job, but then we're always having that little bit of that financial part on the other end. Would we have better luck if we got the local kids to do it? I don't know. It's worth a shot. What's the worst thing that happens? They say, no.

Is it really that big of an expense? No, we usually donate like $100. I think it would be good to have both, honestly. Like there's that big production, they sing, and then it like dies.

Or do we have, yeah, have something like later on, just something. Yeah, that's a good idea.

Because it is. Everyone's there, they sing, and then it's like, okay, now what?

So if there was something... Maybe not even just a choir. I mean, do they have a band that would know a few holiday tunes? I don't know. Just have some lively music, maybe, even if the choir couldn't do it. Just something.

There's a couple boys that do some rock band. If you could get the choir teacher on board, they could... FOR EVENTS LIKE THAT, THEY COULD DO EXTRA CREDIT OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. YEAH. I'VE SEEN. THAT'S A GOOD IDEA.

COUPLE BOYS THAT DO A ROCK BAND. IT SOUNDS WEIRD, BUT IT'S NOT REALLY THAT. BUT THEY DID IT AT THE PLAYOFFS FOR BASKETBALL LAST YEAR, AND I WAS HEARING EVERYONE, LIKE, OH, MY GOD, THEY'RE SO GOOD. AND THERE'S TWO OF THEM.

OH, OKAY.

OR THREE. AND CLEARLY, LIKE, THEY WERE PLAYING ALL GENRES OF MUSIC, BECAUSE IT WAS BASKETBALL PUMP-UP MUSIC. SO THAT WOULD BE LESS OF A PRODUCTION. And the students at the DGF? Yeah.

That would be very cool.

Yeah. You don't go to a basketball game and see this rock band in the corner and expect that it's going to be very good.

But, yeah. I think live music at the event would be a nice addition. I think it would, you know, with the fires and the s'mores and people coming by. Right, just to continue music. Yes. I think that would be good, too, instead of, yeah, the canned radio music.

I have no idea.

I'm just curious.

I mean, I'll find out if you want. I don't even know the instructor.

That's what Google's for.

Maybe they'd be good at other events, too. Put an ad in the paper. Dear Rock Band High School Boys.

Absolutely. No, I think we got a good start to that. All right. So existing park reports and assignments. We'll start with Tim and kind of work our way around.

I walked through Walnut before I came today. Everything looks good. Nothing's broken. Everything's clean. Park's picked up. I did send some pictures to the city. Just I don't know what one resident is doing. It looks like there's... Oh, yeah. There's... poles that are like at the lines of their property, but then they come into the park And they've already tilled up a portion of the park there, and I think they kind of attend to that. So I just made the city aware. I don't know what or why.

Mike Fickle looked, and he looked, and he's going to keep an eye on it. And he's like, he doesn't in general have a problem with them doing the gardening or whatever in the park or whatever. But it always becomes an issue when that person moves out. And then it's left undone. And so that's the reason he is going to kind of keep an eye and see what they're going to do. If they're putting up a fence or I don't know. It's hard to know. The poles are like those ones you usually see. They'll put up before the snow falls so they can kind of track where the sidewalks and stuff. The corners of the sidewalk or something. Yes, that's what they are. Yeah, so he wasn't really sure either. But he's going to keep an eye on it and see what's going to happen over there and see. I don't know, make sure they don't. In general, it isn't a big deal if someone does a garden, but that person moves out, it just becomes all weeds. The next owner is like, that's not my property, and it becomes an issue. So that's kind of why we want to try to keep it under wraps if we can so it doesn't become an issue in the future.

Otherwise, the park looks good. All right.

Well.

Well, since last meeting, Elm Tree has gotten the TLC it needs. It finally got mowed, and the old flower beds got also mowed and tended to, so it's like even. I was out there on Sunday afternoon and did a walkthrough. I know the... I did it myself. I took my little hand saw and I had cut out those three volunteer cottonwoods coming out of the evergreens. They aren't coming back so that's a good sign too. That's on the alley side where it was coming. The tree stump is flowering and growing so we'll have the bush that's there will eventually be another tree growing up from it because it's still there but at least It doesn't look as bad, stump and sprouts. Now it's sprouts all the way around. So it looks like a little green bush. So it looks good, but you know, and of course, you know, that takes 15, 20, 25 years to grow. So who knows, but everything else is really nice out there. It's taken care of and it's done good. And, um, um, yeah, so I'm happy.

It's been a hard summer for anything. Yeah.

Yeah.

I stopped at Constitution on the way over today and all is fine over there.

All right. I guess my park's Keystone just besides the goose. Yeah. Good luck on that. Droppings on the sidewalks.

We'll be going south soon.

Hopefully. Woodbridge has looked good. It's just that summer thing where we were getting the weeds with grasses dead. They did get that soccer net out there. That's been a while.

Has anyone seen anyone using it?

I've seen some soccer balls out there.

You have?

Because we were out there last Tuesday when I was off.

How does it look? Does it look good?

I think it looks huge out there. I didn't notice how big they are.

So it's like a full-size soccer net.

It's a full-size soccer net. It's pretty good, but there must have been like three, four soccer balls out there, so I'm guessing someone's out there doing something with it. That's good. So that's good. The other thing I have to mention that's not with the park is is I did reach out to Tracy, I believe it's Tolson, with the community ed. She was open for a conversation on doing some stuff with Southside Social. I'm just curious, can I do that by myself or do I have to, should I bring her in for a park board meeting? Just like to discuss kind of coordinating that a little bit.

Like combining, like having the school be a part of the event?

Like having, what is it, like use soccer, t-ball, whatever it is, down there at the same time.

If you want to just discuss it with her, that should be fine.

Yeah, I haven't emailed back yet. I've got to figure out times on that. I'll settle work. Yeah.

I mean, if she'd like to come to a meeting and we can discuss it here, that's fine, too. Right.

I was going to mention that to her, but I thought that's all it said.

We only have so many meetings, so I'd hate for you to wait, you know, until the next meeting.

It sounded like it would be open to it, so I think just more of coordinating stuff, and we've got time on that, too.

Yeah, that'd be good. Yeah.

That's all I got.

The volleyball net at Apple Orchard could use some help. It's like sagging down on one spot in the middle. And then, Ashley looked fine when I walked by a couple days ago.

All right.

I just had a couple of things. I mean, it's not really park-related, but in case you hadn't heard, we did hire a city administrator. He is supposed to start on the 28th of this month. His name is Mike Bretholst. So yeah, Jerrica got to meet him. There was a luncheon, and then we had one person from each committee, and Andrew couldn't make it, so yeah. So she got to meet him, so you can ask her all about him, but we had three candidates that came in, and they interviewed, and he just stood out to the council, so he's the one that So we're excited to have him start because we have been without a city administrator for a while. So his first day, there's even a council meeting. So make sure you get a chance to welcome him when he is on board. And then I was just also going to let you know that Erin, the other admin assistant, has put in her notice she's already done. So that's why it's been rough in the office lately. So... The one that just went to Jackie's job, and so we hired Aaron to replace Jessica, and then Aaron. And nothing bad, she just got a better job where she can work from home and the whole thing. So it wasn't so much she didn't want to work here anymore, it's that she just had a better opportunity. So we wish her well, we miss her, but it's been kind of chaotic in the office with missing two people like that, so.

Can you say louder what the new administrator's name is? Michael?

Mike Bretholst. That's his name.

Is he from the area?

He lives in Detroit Lakes.

Okay.

And he's going to be commuting.

Yeah.

Okay. And so your search is still on for another?

Actually, no, we've already offered the position for the administrative assistant. Since Aaron hadn't been here even 90 days, we were okay to offer our number two person that we interviewed for that position, so we didn't have to go through the whole hiring process again. Oh, that's nice. And that person accepted even. Lucky us. So I think she'll be a really good addition. There might be a chance she might take over park board as well. So just kind of know that that might be coming. But yeah, so that'll be good. Once we have everybody on staff, it'll be great. But those are my only other updates from the city side of things.

What about a city groundskeeper?

I haven't heard anything about that happening anytime soon. Again, they're talking about budget. I know that it is something that Amber is bringing up. She mentions this as being part of the park board, but I am not at those meetings. I don't know if they're getting anywhere with that or not.

It would be nice.

It would be nice. It really would be nice. It would be nice to have someone be proud of our parks and how they look all the time.

As you can tell the difference when you go to like Moorhead, you go to Fargo, they're just upkept a little bit.

Yep, we all understand.

And it's just a TLC that unfortunately we don't have time for. You do what you can do, but you can't go around and pill every weed right now. Lyle might, but I'm not.

mean that's too many obviously as you all know the community center is being built and this is quite an expense the city is taking on I mean obviously there's the building but there's the operational costs too so that's also a big part of the budgeting process and we need to remember that they're gonna have to consider that when they're considering everything else for the budget yeah because you're gonna need

CLERKS OVER THERE TO MANAGE THAT. I MEAN, YOU KNOW, YOU'RE GOING TO BE CHECKING IN, CHECKING OUT FOR EVENTS. YOU'RE GOING TO BE CHECKING IN, CHECKING OUT FOR THE PLAYGROUND ROOM AND EVERYTHING. SO THEY CAN'T EXPECT ANYBODY

think so I do understand whether okay we're gonna have that or you're gonna have a part-time person exactly I mean you know part-time parks would be nice but I would I'd be the first one to say no you need to put someone there yeah full-time not part-time but full-time and even like I said the operational cost even with the fire hall they weren't anticipating like like the energy and costs utility costs like tripled over there but that I mean obviously it's a much larger building so we're anticipating something similar here so TRYING TO ANTICIPATE MORE OF SOME OF THOSE COSTS, MAINTENANCE COSTS OF THE BUILDING. I MEAN, SO THAT'S WHAT I HEAR A LOT ABOUT WITH THE BUDGET.

WE HAVE TO TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION THIS ASSET THAT'S COMING TO OUR COMMUNITY AND WHAT IT'S GOING TO COST.

SO SOMETHING TO JUST KEEP IN MIND WHEN THEY COME OUT WITH THE BUDGET, WHAT WE DO AND DON'T GET.

ALL RIGHT.

ANYTHING ELSE?

HEARING NONE.

I HAVE A QUESTION. Amber, I hate talking about her tonight here. I know she's not re-running for council. So will she be gone? And we'll have a new council liaison? Exactly, yep.

Does she intend to be on the park board? Like continue as a member? That is a question you would have to ask her. I don't know. Do you think she would like to? No, probably not. Oh, okay. Well, maybe I will ask her.

She has a lot of time on her hands. That's what I was talking to her about a couple weeks ago.

Which is, I think, why she decided not to run again, yeah.

Yeah.

So that'll be interesting, yeah.

But we'll have a new liaison at November's meeting, essentially, then.

That wouldn't start until, like, January. Oh.

Well... As she knows, being on the board isn't as much as being the council member attached to the board. There is a little less stress on the board than the councilman.

She wouldn't have as much commitment, I guess.

No, you're good. All right. With that being said, we'll be adjourned until November 7th, if I remember right, that Tuesday.

Okay.

10th. 10th, sorry. Thank you. I wrote that down wrong. All right, I have 10 minutes.

Do I still have a gift card here to pick up for my daughter, or did that get?

back in the pot oh yeah like a gift card yeah sure we feel like i know i'm glad that you know myself i don't know how to close that up enter code for player picks what time does the game start everybody thank you let's see

You need to hug the cup. Right there. So what you might be able to do, because we just have the email link. I don't know how this works. We just sent it last year, too. You have to go through the link to get it. Or is there?

Good luck.