Board of Park Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I am going to call to order this meeting of the board of park commissioners here on Thursday, April 2026 at 05:31. Commissioners Littlejohn and Cleary are excused. Everyone else is here in council chambers. Our first item is approval of the minutes.

Do I have a motion, Commissioner Olson?

Thank you. Motion to approve the minutes.

Motion to approve by Commissioner Olson, second by Council Member Weston. Is there discussion about the minutes? Alright. Then let's please vote. And that passes unanimously. Our next item of business is notices and discussions. Are there any notices and discussions?

I do have a quick notice for everyone, park board and guests as well. We'll be celebrating Arbor Day as a parks, recreation, and forestry department next Friday, April 24 in Myrick Park. I believe this is our thirty sixth year being designated as a tree city through the Arbor Day Foundation. So we'll have a tree planting ceremony, in the park. Everything will start at 9AM. We'll have mayor Shondell present as well to read a proclamation, that morning. So we invite you all to attend and celebrate Arbor Day with us.

Thank you. Any other notices or discussions? Alright. So let's please move on to our first agenda item 26 dash zero three seven seven, an ordinance to repeal, recreate, create, and amend various sections of the code of ordinances of the city of La Crosse relating to electric bicycles, electric scooters, and other vehicle use. And I would call up Sammy Meyer, and then we'll hear from some other staff as well if if that is what commissioners want.

Sure. So I will just give a brief overview of why this item is in front of you tonight. This item is, as the agenda states, has lots of different edits to current ordinance that exists right now. It's in before you because the ordinance and the edits, have effects in the park spaces that this board has purview over. So there is definitely some alterations that affects park spaces, but the proposed language has been curated to kinda clean some of that up, clarify definitions. And we also have assistant city attorney Ellen Atterbury here as well to answer any specific questions related to the legislation, the verbiage, things like that. So I'd invite Ellen to join us as well.

So I just have a question about our discussion today. Are we, in fact, discussing the entire ordinance, or are we only discussing the park relevance section?

The entire ordinance is the agenda item Okay. I guess. So that would be open to discussion if that's no. Never park we would like to keep it park relevant today. Thank you for the correction.

Okay. So just to be clear, we're only and then that would be let's see. What section?

Anything that falls in chapter 34 would be the parks department ordinance section.

Sorry. I'm looking here. Oh, forty four? Four. 30 okay. 34. Because there's 44 okay. So everything that's section 34 dash 68, is that what we're discussing?

I believe there is, a document that kinda goes over some section specific changes.

So sections specific to the parks department would be thirty four six seven and thirty four six eight.

Perfect. Thank you.

Right. Yeah. Just so we're all clear on what our purview and and discussion is going to be about because this is gonna move on to other bodies.

Yes. That's correct. Right.

Okay. And so can you

say again? 3468? 347 and 308.

Okay. So it's not this oh oh. Yep. Alright.

Yeah.

6768. Yeah. Okay. Alright. So not section 44.

Not specific to our department. Alright.

Who is attorney Adderbery going speak to us, or is she just here to answer questions?

Would you be willing to give a quick overview of the ordinance and some of the

Yes.

Proposed changes? Okay.

Yes, please, attorney.

Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. What this is, this package legislation, has been a long time coming. There's been a severe need for updating to language in a lot of places in our code. There's a lot of internal inconsistencies, contradictions, whatnot. This stemmed a couple years ago from a request by the bike pad committee to review our ordinances around electric scooters.

So as it turns out, it's not just creating one ordinance. It involves amending many of them, and that includes sections in the purview of the parks department and parks and recreation. With this, the recommended changes to thirty four sixty seven thirty four sixty eight, Thirty four sixty seven is housekeeping. The intent and regulation is still preserved in the proposed thirty four sixty eight and current thirty four seventy. There's just a lot of old language it needs to go. The intent and regulation is still enforceable. In thirty four sixty eight, this is updated in a repeal and recreate because I found it somewhat incomprehensible to read as it is currently written in the code. It it carries a lot

of old

terminology. It's redundant with other sections. So it's just getting a it's getting a little bit fresher now. And we're also incorporating electric scooters and ebikes into this as well. So there's a new purpose and intent section that kind of lays out the parameters, ability of this board to approve more bike paths or other paths for different types of recreation.

It unifies the bicycle definitions internally in the code just to be clear what we're talking about with bikes and ebikes. It adopts the state law definitions for those. It just creates simpler language for the regulations in Hicks and Forest. It doesn't change what they are in regards to that. And it applies the current EPAMD or electric personal assistant mobility device restrictions and regulations to e scooters and bike, except bikes are allowed in designated natural trails and trails at the Forest Hill Golf Course.

It preserves the Riverside International Friendship Gardens and levy restrictions that currently exist for EPAMDs. There's a few new areas prohibited that are, I would say, fairly common sense upon recommendation from the parks and recs department, including beaches, like the sandy areas, pools, ice rinks, whatnot. Why the whole piece of legislation is included here? So our ordinance, it likes to regulate different things in different parts of the code. So one of the changes in another section updates the definition of downtown areas, so it's consistent for all types of, like, non motorized vehicles, like eScooters, bikes, play vehicles.

And with that update, it now would allow biking on sidewalks in Riverside Park, which is technically currently prohibited under code, but not enforced as far as I've been able to tell anyone in the police department. In fact, it's also due for an update because it's been inconsistent with recent regulations of the city of La Crosse. This board has approved several drift bike stations in Riverside Park. And recently, last year, the common council unanimously approved a bike trail through Riverside Park, in particular, on the sidewalk area based on the map. I can give you that resolution number if needed. So that is it. In short, come at me with any questions you have.

What questions do commissioners have for attorney Atterbury? No questions for Attorney Adewarie. Commissioner Olson.

Thank you, Chairman Troost. We're I've been looking through here and you mentioned Hixson Forest. I don't see anything specific to Hixson Forest. Excuse me, Hixson Forest and what are not knowing the legal language, are e bikes allowed in Hickson Forest?

Okay. Now that's a really good question. So what's new here in this thirty four sixty eight sub d restriction section as opposed to limiting it just to Hickson Forest, It says, generally, bicycles are prohibited on natural surface trails or natural areas except those trails designated as open to bikes, so that would include Hicks and Forest. In terms of e bikes, e bikes are allowed without the throttle engaged. So a pedal assist would be okay with an e bike, but the throttle so I recently learned a lot about e bikes, so please excuse the terminology.

That's where you press the button and go around on it really fast. So that would be what is prohibited to discourage, like, really fast use with that. In talking with the departments, that was the preferred way to regulate it versus just completely banning e bikes. There's statutory language that would give a municipality the ability to essentially say ebikes could be used without the power unit operation, basically rendering them acoustic bikes. This seeks to serve as, like, a middle ground for that. So just to allow, you know, the pedal assist without the throttle use that is currently in class two ebikes and some class three ebikes right now.

Okay. So if somebody's in there and they decide to use the electronic throttle, what can a person do if someone's hiking in there or or that you know, how how do we report that to the city or the police?

How do you report it now?

No idea.

No idea? Great. Document it. Call it in if you want. You know, take pictures, videos. So I go on the marsh trails regularly, and I regularly encounter motorcycles up there too. I have this hobby of taking pictures of them, and they enjoy giving me one finger in particular. That's okay. I can take it. But what I could do then is I could submit it to the police. I could call it in, you know, see what kind of pattern of behavior is emerging. So report it, I would say.

Okay. Thank you. Yep.

Any other questions from commissioners for attorney Atterbury? Okay. Alright. Thank you. Thank you.

I would like to entertain a motion to open public hearing because we do have someone in the audience who wishes to speak on this item. So could I have unanimous consent with your nod to go into a public hearing? Okay. Thank you. So we are now in a public hearing.

And I don't have that language, but looks like we just have one person here. So if you would like to come up, I have Greg Pepin, and you will have three minutes. And can you please say your name and the city where you live?

Yes. Thank you, madam chair. Greg Pepin. 429

Okay. Thank you.

I am here to I guess my understanding is that currently, bicycles are not allowed on sidewalks in Riverside Park, but that this ordinance change would permit that. That. I am here to speak to to preserve the the the prohibition on bicycles in Riverside Park. And my rationale is that it's a very it's a very unique park, and there is a lot of trap lot of foot traffic in that park. The sidewalks are different sizes.

You've got a levee there. You've it's used by a variety of people. You know? I'm in that park once or sometimes twice a day virtually year round. Maybe a little bit less in the winter, but certainly spring spring, summer, and fall, I'm in the park a lot since I live close to it. You've got senior citizens. You've got parents with strollers. You have disabled people in wheelchairs using that. You've got the cruise ships that come in and people come off there, you know, tens and dozens of people. You've got moon tunes where there's a lot of people walking around there.

And I I would just say and I'm a I'm both. I'm a pedestrian and I'm a biker. So I'm not anti bike, but I just believe in Riverside Park that that area is unique and that that bikes can continue to use the roadway. And but I think they should be prohibited from the sidewalks. It's just a it's just a dangerous situation. I think it's an accident that's waiting to happen. There may be other other parks where that's an issue. I'm not familiar with that, to be honest with you. My focus is on Riverside Parks and something there a lot. I think, certainly, the, you know, the the other parts of the ordinance that you're trying to deal with with ebikes, I I support that.

I think that it's just a a common sense measure here to do that. I have shared some an amendment to the ordinance with staff council Atterbury, very simple, to just add Riverside Park in there. And I think it's just a common sense change, and I I would hope that you would give that some consideration in light of the fact that this is a very unique park used by a lot of different people at a lot of different times. So thank you very much for your time.

Okay. Thank you. Is there anybody else from the public who wishes to speak on this item? Okay. If there are no other members of the public who wish to speak on this item, then I would like to get approval from this body to close our public hearing. Okay. So we are done with our public hearing, and so now I would open the floor up to, comments from commissioners. Although I do have one point of information. Could somebody please tell me what is the Riverside Park levy? What is the Riverside Park levy?

Yes, Chair Trolls. Riverside Park levy would be adjacent to the water on the far west side of the park where the big boats pull up. There's a slight, yeah, there's a slight grade down and then brick pavers that can make up the levee. Goes underwater when we have high water at all. I was just down there last night. It's pretty close.

Alright. Thank you for that point of clarification. No. I think we could do discussion first. Commissioner Kirsch.

Thank you, chair. To Greg's point, I happen to agree with that. And, honestly, I don't feel like bikes belong on any sidewalks. They're called sidewalks for a reason, in my opinion.

And

unless you're a kid, basically. Otherwise, I share a concern that Todd voiced about, well, how do you know if somebody's, somebody's, you know, throttling? Well, I mountain bike a lot, and I've seen people ride up the trails, not up, like gateway, not pedaling. That is 100% irritating. Irritating.

And now I'm gonna be reporting it. So I I like a lot of this, but I still feel like sidewalks are especially in the residential area, anybody going any faster than walking speed should be on the road because cars come out of driveways. They come out of alleyways, and you cannot see anything moving fast. And you and you can't stop quick enough if there's a car coming from an alleyway. So I just wanted to throw that out there.

If you're going I mean, so far, kids haven't gotten hit too often. Right? People haven't gotten hit too often, but I really feel like bikes, I don't care if they're ebikes, whatever, toys. If it's a kid, okay. But if you're an adult, especially if you're moving along, along, you shouldn't be on a sidewalk.

Commissioner Olson?

Thank you, Chairman Charles. Jay, I got two questions for you. I should have just had you stay up there.

One

is going on Chairman Cho's question about the levy. Are bicycles prohibited only on the brick paved levy or also the newer levy that's concrete? Or is that I guess I'm not

They're both levees.

So they would be both. Okay. Thank you. Then is there a reason that it was decided in the compromise to allow bikes in the sidewalks at Riverside?

Well, admittedly, I have not been real close in all of these discussions. Sammy's, you know, kept me up to speed. This has been an ongoing issue. And in all honesty, I I I agree with a lot of the concerns specific to Riverside Park. I I agree with a lot of the concerns all over the city when it comes to the bikes, primarily the e bikes.

One of the reasons that the city attorney's office and attorney Atterbury and our our department has worked with them is now enforcement becomes a big issue. And the reality is we do not have the manpower to enforce a lot of these ordinances. So are people riding their bikes in Riverside Park right now? Probably as we speak. Speak.

Will this increase the riding of bikes in Riverside Park? Potentially. Again, I I I am I adamantly oppose bikes on the levy. I adamantly oppose bikes in the International Gardens. From a from a perspective of an enforcement, I see the purpose of of the amendment to the current ordinance. Alright. Thanks, Jay.

Council member Weston.

This may be a question for attorney Anner Barry, and you're so much more well versed in what was the ordinance, what is on the table. I appreciate the conversation about bikes on the sidewalks in Riverside Park. My question is this board doesn't have the ability to override something that the council has approved. And so if there was to be a revisiting of that, is that my assumption is that there's another path that that has to take.

My recommendation would be today, let's hypothetical, let's say this board wants to motion to recommend as is. You all could do a motion to recommend as is, passfail. And that recommendation could be accompanied, the J and A file. So it wouldn't be a formal amendment. But like the BPAC recommendation is on this file, it could follow then to J and A two.

Alternatively, if there was interest in making an amendment or just to be like, we don't want to have biking on sidewalks in Riverside Park, you could, in this recommendation, say, we would recommend this with the amendment to prohibit bikes on sidewalks in Riverside Park. And then that could accompany the file, too. So it's before J and A. I would need a formal amendment request from a council member to do that. But this committee could do that today, and it could get its recommendation in front of J and A.

Any other council members? Commissioner commissioner Wilson?

I guess I have been known to ride my bike in Riverside Park slowly and carefully, but it is a handy place to be able to ride your bike. There are bike trails that end there and go through there, and I just think it can be done safely. I wouldn't do it during moon tunes or something, but, to to bar biking seems like we don't need to do that.

Commissioner Kirsch? Yes.

Thank you again. Maybe you can answer this. So what about, like, the paved trails around? I've seen electric bikes that look like motorcycles on there, and they aren't pedaling, obviously. Are those allowed on This those

is great question. So motorbikes are not e bikes, and they would not be allowed there. So in part of this update that I did was I made a motorized vehicle definition. I largely just adopted it from state law. And I said what it doesn't include in there so it wouldn't include an electric bike, but a motorbike would be prohibited. So anything gas power would not be allowed on the trails there. Anything that doesn't fall in, I would say, a regular bike or any of the classes of e bike wouldn't qualify as a bike, so it wouldn't be allowed there. So I'm sure you see a lot of them now. They're definitely out there. And as the bikes, though bikes and e bikes, they would be allowed on paved trails, but not the motorbikes.

Commissioner Young.

Thank you. Maybe sorry, was such an informal working relationship. Attorney Atterbury, not Ellen. Maybe you have the answer. Maybe Sammy does. Maybe somebody else does. But last I heard, the police department couldn't quantify any issues that have occurred between bicycles and pedestrians in any of these parks, I think because they claim they don't keep that data. Have you heard anything different about that?

I haven't heard anything different. I hope that Sergeant Hughes can join us at J and A or another representative from the police department. I personally have not. So I used to prosecute municipal tickets fairly regularly here until we got our new assistant city attorney. Wonderful. The few tickets I would see regarding bikes were usually when they were ticketed in a collision with a motor vehicle. But as far as that, I don't have any information or anything additional to share.

Councilmember Weston. Director Odegaard, as this moves forward, the rest of the council will likely be asking you some questions about recommendations. Do you have thoughts on how we proceed tonight with these questions?

Yes. Thank you, board member Weston. I think the important thing to realize tonight is while while the park board doesn't supersede the council, the park board created through state statute is to weigh in and and be a very loud voice for this exact type of legislation that affects our park system. So as attorney Atterbury said, an amendment could be made through a council member. I think the the recommendation that's gonna come from this board will carry a lot of weight, and I think it should.

And ultimately, the council is going to be looking at the other, however, 47 pages of this to to to make a lot of those decisions. But you have the integral knowledge of our park system. And in this case, I would say Riverside Park seems to be, you know, kind of the hotbed of this. I will say that we have worked with the police department on the motorized vehicles on our on our rabbit trails, our paved trails. It is a it is an issue that we've been dealing with.

It's an issue that isn't solely regulated to those trails. I mean, we're dealing with this issue all over town. I think I would I would guess that this is a step to try to catch up with the technology that, you know, is fast advancing, and our ordinances just aren't, if that answers your question. Thank you.

Councilmember Schlisnikau. As the sponsor of this legislation?

Yes. Thank you, madam chair. Related to Riverside Park, we had extensive conversations in the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee about this. We also heard from a number of people. And where I think many people landed on this was accessibility.

We're hearing more and more elderly and those with various disabilities that are now starting to rely on, especially e bikes, getting around. We heard from folks, and we had extensive discussions about various roadways and speed limits and access to sidewalks where it's not really safe to ride on the street. But I have seen people in Riverside Park that are using the sidewalks, and, fortunately, I've not seen them using them irresponsibly. But I could see I've ridden my bike in Riverside Park. I I personally don't ride on sidewalks, but I know there are times when there are lots of cars and people would like to get there where they could sit on one of the benches.

And if they have an ebike, it's it's quite challenging at times to get up where there's a spot where you can get over the curb. So I think with this ordinance, we were it was one of those where we're trying to come up with something initially. These ordinances are not you know, carved in granite. They can be changed. Enforcement is a big issue. Education came up over and over. It really comes up to letting people understand what's safe, what's responsible. I too see people on sidewalks, primarily with class two or throttle bikes that should not be on sidewalks. You know, they're using those irresponsibly. Luckily, I don't see it too often, and that's not to say we won't see it more.

But, again, in Riverside Park, I can see where the concern is, but my at the same time, you know, inclusive multimodal transportation, allowing those that really rely. And I heard from multiple people that said if they cannot use their ebike in various places and use the sidewalk in certain areas where they're going, they wouldn't get there. They wouldn't have that ability. So I just hope the, you know, the commissioners keep that in mind moving forward. Enforcement,

it

it's going to be challenging. Reporting is going to be important. You know, the way of getting that out so the police can understand where infractions could be taking place so they could start to emphasize perhaps observation there. Also, education. You know, when you're talking to folks or if you know folks that have e bikes, and I I know various couples that have gotten them, they're they're loving them.

I mean, they're to the point that they wouldn't be able to ride their bike. But with the e bike, they can get out and get around. They can feel comfortable knowing that where they are, that, if there's a grade or an uphill or something, they would be able to get around. So trying to be as inclusive as possible with mobility, I think that's really important. I I don't understate the potential concern, but I would hope the, commissioners would consider moving forward with Riverside Park as it is.

This can always be revisited. And I know because of the work that attorney Atterbury has worked with, sergeant Hughes, the police are very aware of this, and they will be more and more aware moving forward now that we're seeing more and more e bikes and e scooters out there. Thank you.

Commissioner Kirsch?

Thanks. Once again, things are always popping into my head. Just a couple of things. I really appreciate the legislation, but to the point of, well, what kind of data do we have in terms of collisions and stuff. Do we really want to have that happen first?

I mean, I think this is really proactive. If we aren't having collisions, the time's gonna come. And so I think having this legislation is going to help. Also, with, enforcement as far as, being able to report and being able to shake your finger at somebody who's riding a scooter down a hill when you're mountain biking in Gateway and they have no control over their scooter. Now I know what to do.

So hopefully, people will appreciate what we're trying to do here and become I don't know how many people are actually irresponsible users of this technology, but hopefully, a lot fewer of them will be irresponsible because they can see that we're trying to make an effort to be inclusive.

Councilmember Weston?

I would like to move to approve and retain the floor if there's a second.

Motion to approve by council member Weston, second by commissioner Kirsch. Commissioner, council member Weston.

Just a brief comment. I've so appreciate the amount of time and energy that has gone into rewriting these and catching us up with the time, so to speak. So thank you, attorney Adebury and the parks and rec staff who've worked on this certainly, but the bike and ped committee as well as this is I get many phone calls from district folks who are very curious about our ordinances with ebikes and the such. So it was much needed, and so, I very much appreciate the time and energy both from our committees and city staff. Thank you. Commissioner Olson?

Thank you. I know there's motion of floor, so but couple of things I just wanted to mention. We understand we're trying to include riders better in the city of La Crosse. I'm not against that. Their accessibility to different areas, we understand that.

But we also understand that we have to watch out for the safety of the pedestrians in our city parks. We don't have control over the whole city, just the city parks, so that's what we're talking about today. And I also think that maybe, and hopefully, the council will add something in the final vote that we revisit this issue in a year and see what kind of accidents have or have not happened. And if people are abusing the situation down at Riverside Park, maybe we need to change it. And I just think we need to not just approve or unapprove and forget about it. I think we need to revisit it either way in a year. Thank you.

Commissioner Young?

Thank you again. I won't be voting to support this, just like I didn't vote to support it at the Bike Ped Committee. For those of you who don't know, I'm on the Bike Ped Committee. I've also run a local bike shop for the last eight years, if you didn't know that. And I really don't appreciate that this legislation vilifies people who use a bike to get around or an e scooter or even an e moto because a lot of those people are just going places.

It's easy to see a tween on a scooter and go, oh, it's rotten kids. But I pointed out to my wife one time when she was raving about them that that is micro mobility. That is a child moving through our city that has been made hostile to them for the last fifty years, and that's why kids rely on their parents to drive them around. So I I don't like that we are treating people and their bikes like a danger to society even though we're only talking about a few bad actors. Right?

If we were truly concerned about safety in Riverside, we wouldn't allow people to drive down there. And you're not allowed to drive on the levee, but that guy drove his Chevy off of it two years ago. Right? So that's why I won't be supporting this legislation, although I wholly appreciate attorney Atterbury's dedication to it and her willingness to talk to local bike shops and learn that there is a difference between a class one, a class two, a class three, and a electric motorcycle. So thank you for your attention to all that.

Any other comments from commissioners? Commissioner Wilson?

Just wanted to make comment on electric motorcycles, and people have already mentioned it. But I've been out in Hixson Forest and seen people riding basically electric motorcycles without the need to pedal, and I'm glad that that's not included in this and that we're trying to control it. In in San Diego, I've been in parks where kid teenage boys riding around on their electric motorcycles were even digging up. We're creating jumps and things for their to to go over, and I was hoping glad that wasn't happening here. So thanks.

Alright. Seeing no further discussion, can we please vote? And that motion passes five to two. Moving on to item 26 dash zero three nine three, request to approve fundraising for Bluff View Basketball Court Lights.

Thank you. Few weeks back, a Jim Bagneski had reached out to me in regards to this particular topic. This is Bluff Site or Bluff View Park, 2800 Jackson Street up against the bluff right behind the old Kmart for those of you that are unaware. And this this started with a young man that wanted to light the basketball court over there. We had previously received a quote through Pellinger Electric for this project.

Once the the young man talked with mister Bagniewski, who is the the chair of the Bluffside Neighborhood Association, my biggest concern was that the neighborhood was gonna be on board. A basketball court changes a park. A lit basketball court really changes a park. That is why you don't see many lit basketball courts in our park system, because it it it changes the atmosphere, especially in a neighborhood park. Mister Bagniewski contacted, as you saw, the letter of support that he wrote, one of the things that I had requested from him.

He has reached out to the neighborhood. I'm I'm still a little cautious with the fact that, you know, some people just don't respond to flyers or don't get on the the Internet in regards to wanting to complain about, no. I don't want a light at a basketball court. However, I do greatly appreciate the fact that this individual is taking the ownership to go out and wanna fundraise this money. I have no doubt that they will be able to fundraise this money if the board approves it add this light.

Now the the light itself will be operated by a photo sensor. Mister Bagniewski explains in his letter that that will be shut off at 10:00 and only be operated through the appropriate months. So from our perspective, you know, there's concerns, but there's also gains in this. I I would recommend from our department standpoint that, you know, we allow them to move forward with the understanding that if there is outcry of, you know, negative comments that do come from that neighborhood, we'll have to adjust the hours or or something that we can work, administratively in our department.

Commissioner Kirsch?

Yes. Thank you. Silly question, but how early potentially would the light be available in the day time?

Yeah. The lights would not go on before the sunrise. So we would be looking at, you know, sunset. I think when I was kind of envisioning this, I really looked to that April, early April, late March where you have a nice day and it gets dark at 07:00. This would extend the play at that court for three hours. And, again, it it's one of those things where we won't really know the negative feedback until the balls are bouncing at 09:00 at night.

Commissioner Olson?

Thank you, Chairperson Charles. Jay, one, if if it's approved and the lights go in, who is going to be responsible for maintenance, replacement, vandalism? Is that gonna be part of the neighborhood group, or does that fall in the city?

We have a very good working relationship with that particular neighborhood association, and they have outstanding and keeping up with the maintenance of amenities that they are you know, have requested and wanted to put into that park. At some point, you know, the city will probably take on some maintenance and some liability of that light pole. But again, it should be very minimal.

So like if people come in and there's vandalism, is that gonna fall under the city's liability, or is that something that the neighborhood group is gonna have to replace? Or I mean, I'm just trying to be clear. So if something does happen, we know who's responsible.

Yeah. I mean, the the the vandalism would be, I don't know, knock the light pole over, I guess, but I or smash it with rocks. That would be something that, again, I would ask the board if this is approved that we work out administratively with the neighborhood association. I do know that they do have funds still sitting in their I don't know how how to explain it, but in their neighborhood association account. And those the funds that they have right now would would be adequate to replace the slight pull if possible.

Alright. Thanks. Yep.

Commissioner Alberts?

Jay, did you say that they've asked people the neighborhood, like, the neighborhood about it? I mean, it seems to me that they're like, okay. We'll just put we'll fundraise and put these up and worry about it later. I mean, to me, it's easy enough to go door to door and get some, you know, okays before they start all this fundraising. But I guess Yeah.

And that's that's really where we're kind of at the at the at the mercy of the Neighborhood Association. As as stated, they have put flyers out at, the houses that are adjacent to the park. They have their website up. I I don't know if it's actually been in the minutes of one of their neighborhood association meetings. I think timing wise that that hasn't hit yet.

But, yeah, that's why I'm I'm you know, I say we're not gonna know until all of a sudden the light goes up and then people are out there playing basketball. And I think that I mean, that is a concern that I was very open with mister Bagniewski about. I I was hoping maybe he would be here to to speak on this, but, yeah. I mean, there ultimately will be people that will be affected that have not put a response out there.

I mean, would it be completely out of line to ask, you know, for signatures to approve this? I mean, it's just to me, it it it's going down the path of, like, it it could turn out very negatively. Does that make sense?

Yeah. I mean, we see in in our business, fortunately, not in lacrosse. Again, we don't have lit basketball courts, but I've seen a lot of communities where they remove the basket basket because of, you know, the issue with the basketball courts. A bouncing basketball makes a lot of noise. But to that point, you know, per the neighborhood, we added a basketball court at Powell Park after we had renovated that park to be more of a green space friendly park, and that basketball court is used every day.

And we have not gotten a single complaint, to my knowledge anyways, of that. One could argue that Powell Park on the corner of Jackson And West Avenue is slightly different than, you know, Bluff View Park, which is off of you know, back off of Jackson behind Kmart. But, you know, I I I think that if if the board chose to approve this, this would be something that internally, again, we would have to make a lot of determining factors with with mister Bagnowski.

Councilmember Weston.

Thank you. Director Ruttegart, my family and I are often at this park, and that basketball court is used. Like, that is used. There's also the pickleball tennis ball courts that are right there. Would this light also light up the courts enough to play?

The this wouldn't affect the pickleball tennis court.

Sure. It would just be focused on that that they're not far apart. That's why

I'm asking. Don't know what Correct.

Okay. K.

Thank you.

And we have lights on the pickleball and tennis courts. So

I don't play pickleball. That's good to know.

If there's no more discussion, then I would entertain some sort of a motion. Commissioner Kirsch? I move to approve. Motion to approve by commissioner Kirsch, second by commissioner Young. Is there any more discussion?

Alright. Then let's please vote. That motion passes unanimously. 26Dash0415. Update on Girl Scout Building.

Yes. Thank you. So this one's kind of a little bit in a gray area as to why it's here, and, I chose to bring it to the park board. As also the director of the building and grounds department in the city, anytime a city facility is finds itself in a position where it doesn't have a caretaker or owner, that building then comes under our purview. And so the Girl Scout building, and I apologize, I do not have a map or and I and I don't have an address for it.

Right off of Highway 16 adjacent to East Relic Park and the train tracks. Is anybody unfamiliar with where that is? Okay. So in that in that area, there are three buildings. One is the boy scout building, one is the Girl Scout Building, and another was the old nature place, the old it it's had a lot of different names.

But the point is now nobody's in it, and we utilize it internally and refer to it as the Bear Den. We mainly use it for storage. Those three buildings all built roughly right at the same time, late seventies, are all on a shared parcel, which is which is also part of Relic Park. And anytime I'm dealing with a facility like this, I have to I I like to see a governing board help in those decisions, and so that's why I'm bringing this update to the park board. So the girl scouts the boy scouts are still operating their building.

Have a very similar agreement. The Girl Scouts were operating their building on a ninety nine year lease in which the city owned the property. The Girl Scouts owned the building. At the time that the Girl Scouts choose to leave that building, that building then becomes property of the city. In your packet, you'll see a letter from the Girl Scouts.

This is something we've been working on for a while. They haven't used that building in a while other than for cookie storage, but they are now at a point where they want to be out of the building. And so this, we, as the city, will be taking back the responsibility of that building. The building is in what I would consider less than adequate shape. It's got a lot of problems.

That lease in the building began in 1980. So as miss Smith says in the in her letter, it served its purpose. But now we have what I would consider the unenviable task of what to do with this building. And the city has multiple options, one being we could sell it, in which case we have to reparcel that in that very large parcel right now. And we have already began that process because that's something that's gonna need to be done anyways.

But what we are doing through this request for interest is seeing, are there any organizations out there that could use this building to benefit their cause? And in doing so, how would that organization's cause benefit the city of La Crosse? Not necessarily the park system, which is a little bit different than probably the last facility that some of you were a part of, and that was the hatchery where we wrote the RFI specifically to benefit park goers. This is this RFI is much broader. But when we look at the process, it begins with the with the RFI, which gives us kind of that gauge on what is the interest level for this building.

It also helps us just get this information out. Coming to the park board off oh, he left. Never mind. I was gonna say, hopefully, the news will play this, but must have bored him with the bike talk. But at the end of the day, if we get good interest, then we will proceed with a request for proposal.

And the request for proposal is gonna be a much more detailed request where we will look at actual budget projections and what the actual operations in that building would be. And it is my intent to bring those discussions back back before this body. Again, we can do one year agreements up to five years before that agreement would have to go to the full council. And depending upon what direction we go in here would depend upon are we going to have a twenty year agreement, or are we gonna have a very short term agreement, depending on what those uses are. So over the next couple of weeks, we'll be probably doing a lot of walk throughs over there.

When I talk about the fact that the building is in disrepair, I've been very vocal about our facilities and the maintenance of those facilities and our lack of funding to do that maintenance. So I I I would be leading with the fact that the city doesn't have any money to put into this building. That weight is gonna have to fall to the organization that that comes in. And depending on what their use is, that financial capital improvement could be a little bit or it could be quite extensive. If we have a proposal that is more toward the sale of that property, then that would be an option.

However, that sale would be, in my opinion, we would be looking at that much closer because that sale would impact our adjacent park being, East Relic. So I know I just kinda threw a lot at you there, but if there's any questions

Commissioner Kirsch? Yes. Thank you. Very interesting because I used to be at the Myrick, Hixson Nature Center board long time ago. Is there any thought of razing the building and rehabilitating that part to a park like

atmosphere?

The short answer is yes. Without getting into too many details, one of the biggest concerns there is just the removal of that building and the expense that's gonna be associated with it. We are having it gone through and look at the asbestos amount in there. That's gonna be an issue. But just demo on that building itself is gonna be a minimum of 75,000, and that's that's very much wishful thinking.

Again, we don't have a budget for that, and I that isn't something that I'd wanna go and ask the council knowing the current financial standing. So if there is a way to get out from underneath it potentially, and it's a win for somebody else that is you know, can utilize it and willing to put the capital improvement in, like the fish hatchery, Not saying we're putting a bar there, but that would be, to me, our best foot forward as a city at this time. Also understanding that there are two other buildings on that current one parcel at this time that one we're using as storage, and we are having some outside communications in regards to that building. But the Bear is that's an even more disrepair. So

Councilmember Weston?

Director Odegaard, this is a fantastic update. Can you clarify what you're wanting from this commission? Like, are you looking for a motion to, like, go forward? Are you just wanting to make sure that we're all updated and then we'll see what comes next?

Yeah. I just our my plan is to release the RFI tomorrow and get it out into, you know, as many hands as possible. And we already have had requests to do walk throughs just word-of-mouth. So I just wanted to make the board aware of this. Again, it's in this really kind of strange gray area where it's technically part of a park parcel.

You know? But commissioner Kirsch brings up a great point, and this is something that we actually internally looked at back with UWL and our building champions trail project that ended up being Luth Park, it was originally going to be over there. So that that area, it has a lot of it has a lot of opportunity being as close as it is to Hixson, as close as it is to Forest Hills, having, you know, trail access now on the backside. The biggest problem and the biggest issue there is the entry and exit on the Highway 16 is is, you know, not advantageous.

So you don't need a motion motion from us, or would you like a motion from us?

I don't believe it's worded for a motion. So I'm sure I'll be back requesting an approval at some point.

Alright. Okay. Thank you. That's our update.

And if anybody has any any further questions later on, feel free to reach out to me.

Okay. Thank you. Our next item, 26Dash0392, update on recreation programs.

Hello. Thank you. My name is Kat. I'm the community recreation and community enrichment manager. And I oversee the wonderful recreation staff that put on a lot of our programs that you'll be hearing about tonight.

I just wanted to give a few updates. We continue to make improvements on the back end and internally to be able to provide for the community with good resources. One of those resources launched today, so the city launched their new updated web site. So these are just some images of the parks pages. The design is designed to provide better user experience and accessibility for the community and visitors and reflects the city's ongoing commitment to customer service.

It includes updates to the Americans with Disabilities Act compliance and improved navigation for mobile devices because I think it was, like, 60% of the site visits are on mobile devices. So everything that was on our old website as of yesterday or this morning is on the new website, but things may have moved around a little bit. We tried to condense some things and make it easy for navigation. So these are just some images from the new website that launched today. And then back in February, the department launched in a mobile app, through our rec track registration system.

And this will improve communications with participants in the community through different push notifications. So there's different categories people can sign up for, Getting weather cancellations. We sent a couple out this week with the rain and soccer cancel soccer and track cancellations. They will be able to access the activity guide right in their hands. So that's always exciting.

They can register for programs, reserve park shelters, pay balances, reserve a transient boat slip, fill out boat slip paperwork, and much more. And then if they attend the pools, this is something we're all really excited for. They don't need the physical card, if you're familiar with that, for the punch passes or memberships. The barcode in their app will work as that. So that was exciting.

Some stats for this app. We had over 500 people download the app with 320 in the last month. And it within the last month, we've had our we've opened our summer registration. So for some lessons, summer camps, and things like that. So we saw a huge tick right before that summer registration sign up date.

And then on the back end, it's we can see what pages people are going to. So you can see the one they're going to the most right now is just the programs and activities. So they're just seeing what's out there, signing up. And then at the bottom of the screen, we can also see, like, this week, our soccer cancellations, how many notifications got sent out, and then how many were actually viewed. So just some cool things we can see on the back end for that.

And that's all I have for that. And then just some other marketing things for Facebook and Instagram. We do promote department wide, so recreation, parks, forestry, trails. Everything we do, we try to promote on there. Some popular posts have been polar plunge recently with over 5,000 views, summer registration with 2,500 views.

We did a youth basketball season wrap up with 4,000 views and 62 likes, and the new app had 4,000. And then pickleball and tennis had 11,000 views, 48 likes, and eight shares. So that was pretty popular too. So just some fun things on the back end. So I will turn it over to the rec staff, and they'll tell you more about program specific updates.

Hello. I am Amy Schmidt. I'm your Inclusive Recreation Coordinator. I oversee Special Recreation, Special Olympics, and the Senior Programs. Our 2025 goal for Special Recreation was to develop programming that would provide participants with an opportunity to improve their cognitive, social, and emotional learning.

We were able to do this through our Traveling Through the World program. Our participants were able to eat food from different areas, and each month, we had a specific country that we visited. They learned about it through our Facebook page, and our parties, they had the food from there. We also had a cooking through the passport every three months where they were able to come in and create their own foods from the different countries. My favorite probably was we did a smashed cucumber salad from China, and they each got their own little mini cucumber and then used their hands to smash them.

So that was lots of fun. During the the excuse me. During the summer, we have programs that also promote physical activity through our special recreation programs, but they also are showing the use of parks and facilities. So we do days at the pool. We get 20 to 30 participants for that. Nature walks through our parks. We have a different park each month that our walk through. And then Dave Erickson leads a fishing club that is very popular with our participants. We also have fun outings with the loggers, the steam. We do races at the speedway.

And then we also have an exhibition game with the Special Olympics softball athletes and the first responders that come and we play at Copland Park. It's a lot of fun. In 2026, our monthly programs continue to flourish flourish. Our bingo program has 40 to 50 people average, each month. Our activity nights are seeing about 20 to 30, and then our parties usually have about 50 to 70 people that show up for food, games, and fun activities.

For special recreation, all of our programs are funded through the fees. Our Special Olympics program, we have an athlete leadership program that I talked about a little bit last year. It is continuing to grow and has 17 members now, which is almost double from the nine last year. Special Olympics Wisconsin offers training for our leaders, and all of our leaders go through an intro to leadership and an athlete leadership class. Our program is a little larger, and so I decided that we should create our own little program beyond what they offer so that we can have the repetition.

For people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, repetition is important. So I wanna make sure that our leaders continue to know what leadership skills are so that they can demonstrate that. We work under the servant leadership principles, so it is definitely about listening, encouraging, and then leading from the bottom up. We are not overseeing people. They are there to encourage.

Our athletes also assist Special Olympics Wisconsin with their health programs. I don't know if you know, but Special Olympics is the number one health care provider for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This weekend, we have our state games for our spring sports, and we have seven athlete leaders who will be helping with healthy athlete programs that are put on there, including Strong Minds, Special Smiles, and their performance station. We also would have an athlete that would do healthy hearing, but, unfortunately, he's playing basketball. But his favorite thing is to sit there and say, what?

It is a fun group. We also Special Olympics Wisconsin also has people who come and go universities and teach future medical professionals about inclusive health. This last week, we had four of our athlete leaders who went to UWL and were able to be on a panel and assist Kayla, who is with Special Olympics Wisconsin, in teaching inclusive health to 50 future occupational therapists and physical assistants. They were able to share their stories about health, talk about issues that they have with the medical field or things that they have run into that people may not know that is a difficulty for someone with disabilities. Then they were able to answer questions, so that was super exciting to see also.

The La Crosse Area Special Olympics has athletes from La Crosse, Onalaska, Holman, West Salem, La Crescent, Winona, and Caledonia. We are the third largest in Wisconsin with over 200 athletes, and we are continuing to see new athletes coming in each season. We run 13 sports sports through four and a half seasons, I guess you could say, and we average about 50 athletes per season. Early fall season last year for Bachiev Lake football and softball had 53 athletes in it. Golf last year, we had 13 golfers.

Our late fall sports are volleyball, which was new last year. We had a great inaugural season, and bowling, and we had a 104 athletes. We had 93 bowlers. It's our most popular sports. For spring sports, we are currently almost done with the spring season.

It ends this weekend with our state games. And we had over 50 athletes, and 45 of those are going to state this weekend in basketball skills, three v three half court basketball, five v five full court basketball, and swimming. And then summer sports started two weeks ago, and we have 54 athletes that are participating in cornhole and track this year. This year is also an exciting year for Special Olympics as it's USA games. Every four years, just like the Olympics, we have a special games, and this is held in Minneapolis this year.

We have three athletes from our lacrosse program that are joining team USA or, sorry, team Wisconsin, and we'll be representing them in cornhole. So that's very exciting also. Lastly, for Special Olympics, we had the polar plunge. I'm sure you all were aware. Lacrosse is a little special with our polar plunge.

I take a little pride in this because our athletes are amazing, and so I wanna make sure they're front center. So we have added in a toe dip. That is a plunge where you just dip your toe, and it allows our athletes that may not be able to do a full plunge due to medical reasons the ability to still do the plunge. And we also have an athlete chair section. This year, we had over 30 athletes, and they were loud and amazing.

Our goal this year, given to us by Special Olympics Wisconsin, was 80,000, and we managed to raise 96,000, which is amazing. We had 435 people registered this year, which is up from last year's 250. For the plunge, we were third in the state to raise the most money, and this money goes to athletes for tournaments and for health care and leadership opportunities also. A portion also comes back to our lacrosse program, and that helps offset transportation costs. Lastly, I do senior programs.

Our senior excursions remain very popular. We have had 10 trips so far this year, including Hamilton at the Overture, tours of museums in Minneapolis, and the Garden Expo. We average about three to four excursions each month, and out of the upcoming excursions through October that have been advertised, we have six that are already sold out. Marilyn also Marilyn Burkhart is the one who creates these programs. She's amazing.

She created a boat trip where they take a boat on the Mississippi and then have dinner at Ed Sullivan's, and it was so popular that we had to add another one for the next week, and that one filled up right away also. And then we also have two coming in the fall that are filling up quickly. Our senior excursion crew works very hard, and they create and run the excursions. And we're receiving great comments on our Facebook page, including great seats for a fun, entertaining evening. Really enjoyed the trip today.

And we had one brave excursionist who went and saw Hamilton, and that came back on a huge snowstorm. And it said, it was a wonderful adventure. Thank you, La Crosse Parks and Recreation Department and our brave bus driver who got us there safely and back. Wonderful show. We also run our music performances, including music cafe in the fall and spring, where we see 40 plus people who come and see some local artists who are performing.

And then coming soon, our Mississippi Melodies will be at the Black River Beach again out on the lawn. We usually see 50 to 75 people out there, and all of the local bands that come do come and provide services for free. So all of our special or I'm sorry, all of our senior excursion programs are fully funded by program fees. That is a lot I know, but that is all I have. Does anyone have any questions for me? Alright. Thank you.

Okay. I'm Nikki. Thank you for your time today. I'm one of our recreation coordinators who oversees a lot of our youth sports our aquatics and some of our fill facility reservations. So I'm gonna bring us back to November.

We're gonna go through a few seasons because it's been a while since we've given you guys an update. I oversee our youth figure skating program. It runs in two sessions, one in November and December, and then the second one is in January to March. So our first session, we had 77 kids throughout our different levels, And and then then our second session had 66 kids, and that was practiced for the end of the year show, which we had in early March. For both of the shows, we do a evening show Friday and then a matinee show on Saturday.

The stands were packed full of family and people coming to see the show, and you can even look back on our Facebook page. We just recently posted posted our photos from the show, so you could see that if you missed it. Our lacrosse area camera club took those photos for us as well. Onto our current spring season, I oversee the track program, so that's ages six to 12. It's about an eight week program, and we do our meets at Central High School.

It's kind of fun. We use an electronic timing system, so all of the times are uploaded online, and it can follow them throughout their running career. We have about a 130 participants this year. And one new thing we were able to add as well is online registration for the Meets for Parents, which has worked out really well. We were using kinda paper copies, so makes my job a lot easier tracking all of that as well.

And now kinda moving into summer, we just had our registration open not too long ago. For our youth tennis and pickleball programming, we'll be utilizing Forest Hills this season for most of it. Hopefully, we'll be up and running here shortly in the next few weeks at Forest Hills, And then we also use the Trane pickleball courts as well. We have just a mix of different levels for all different age groups for the tennis program, and then we do an intro to pickleball course as well. And then moving on to pools, we start our season a little bit earlier this year, so we're opening June 1, and then we are our last day is gonna be August 16.

One of the things we kind of adjusted this year was extending our open swim hours. We got some feedback from the public to just keep it more consistent because we were also having pool reservations on the weekends and kinda ending open swim a little bit early. So I think it'll work out well. We have open swim from one to seven consistently throughout the week, and then our reservations will be from seven to 08:45, Friday through Sunday. Our swimming lessons have some of the levels filled up already, but we do still have some spots open.

We have morning lessons at both pools and then evening lessons over at Memorial Pool, And we will also have some aqua fitness classes as well at both pools, so that those are always fun and well attended. We'll also have some free admission days this year like we've continued in the past. So Father's Day, fathers and families can get in for free. And then same for mill military appreciate appreciation day on July 4. And then our customer appreciation day, which is our last day open.

And last year, we actually had about 500 visits across all of our pools. And then I also work with our library to partner with some events at the pool throughout the season. So the library will come a couple times each month to visit, and they do activities, games, do a story time for those who wanna listen in on that as well. So, yeah, kind of went through winter to summer all in just a couple minutes here. Do you guys have any questions for me? Awesome. Thank you for your time.

Good evening. Hunter Allison, recreation program coordinator, and I'll be the anchor for this recreation team tonight. Starting off in early two thousand twenty six, we just wrapped up our youth basketball season. We had a 145 players in the league this season. And a fun little stat that I did find from the season, it was the first Northwoods boys basketball team to win our end of season tournament from what it looks like to be over fourteen years ago back in 2012.

So that was really cool to see that for the Northwoods team. Now in spring, we're on the youth soccer. We're on our third week of the program with game days beginning next Saturday at Fields four Kids. We have 350 players in that program, which generates 33 total teams between grades k through six. So that's a really big program for us and a lot of numbers in that one.

A couple of adult sports. In late February, we wrapped up our seventeen week adult volleyball and adult basketball season. Both those leagues saw over 80 total teams between the two. Before we know it, summer's gonna get here, so we're beginning our summer prep for all of our programs with about a month and a half to go. For summer programs, we offer two seven week long summer camps for the youth in the area.

The first one is Wagon Playgrounds that's hosted at Wagon Park. They get the opportunity to utilize the amenities at Wagon Park, make weekly visits to Veterans Memorial Pool, and then they get to go on a weekly field trip to local theme parks, movie theater, even lager games they've been to as well. The other seven week program that we do have is the nature day camp, which is down at Petty Bone Park. That one is more of the outdoor recreational driven day camp. They get to fish, enjoy the beach, and utilize our petty bone rentals equipment like kayak and paddleboard.

And then the last camp to wrap up this summer is our adventure camp. That's a two week camp that kinda gives them a mix of everything. That's a lot of our Wygant playgrounds and nature day camp campers, and they get a mix of everything. They get to enjoy the pool. They get to go to Petty Bone Park, Myrick Park Trails, pretty much all the amenities that our local facilities have to offer. Our Pittybone rental shelter is getting ready to open up in about a month here. Obviously, weather dependent. Hopefully, mother nature is on our side. The rental shelter features over 45 pieces of equipment, like kayaks, paddleboards, tandem kayaks, and canoes. The rental shelter is open seven days a week from 12PM to 8PM, for all public use.

Yes. Really cool, feature that we have. Small event that we have, not really small, but a youth event that we have is Youth Outdoor Fest. This year is the sixteenth annual Youth Outdoor Fest at Petty Bone Park on July 11. The event is hosted by us at the Park and Rack, US Fish and Wildlife, and Friends of the Upper Mississippi.

The event is a vendor style event with local businesses, agencies, and local partners in the area to expose youth to nature in the area and the outdoor recreational opportunities that we have. Last thing for this summer is our adult softball league. Our adult softball season is a couple of weeks away, actually, from beginning, and that will take up the entire summer and move into mid October. Prior to that season, we will be hosting a preseason tournament at Carroll Fields that will serve as a fundraiser for our Youth Enrichment Association as well as in support of one of our officials and umpires, Jeremy Hansen, in support of his battle against cancer. Our softball season will feature over 70 area teams, and we offer all sorts of leagues like coed, men's, competitive, recreational, fun leagues.

So there's plenty of levels of softball that we do offer. And due this year as well down at Carroll Park will be our concession stand that we are opening up this season. That's gonna have drinks, beverages, food options, and everything for all the players and families to enjoy this summer. And next thing before we know it, it'll be fall and a new school year, and we'll be starting a a new program. So thank you, everyone.

Our next item is 26Dash0394. Request to approve the Northwoods League Softball LLC one year lease extension for the use of Copeland Field.

You got it. So what you guys have in front of you is a one year use agreement. The board is able to authorize up to five one year agreements. This is the third. So that's what this is. There's nothing really else that's changed in this that's kinda boiler boilerplate from previous years. But I what I will say is there was we have to acknowledge an adjustment to number two in the term to go from 06/01/2027. That should read 06/01/2026 and terminating 05/31/2027. So with that, if you have any questions for me, I can answer it. Otherwise, we do have members from the walkers here to answer any questions for you guys.

Any question from commissioners? If not, then I would entertain a motion. Commissioner Olson?

Motion to approve.

Motion to approve by commissioner Olson, second by commissioner Kirsch. Any discussion about this, please? Alright. Alright. Then let's please vote.

And that motion passes unanimously. Okay. Thank you. I do want to go back and thank our four presenters for giving us the extensive overview of everything that the city offers. I apologize for not doing that right away. I was lost in the new website. 260397, presentation of adopt a site program completed by UWL intern Ryan Fitzgerald.

Thank you. My name is Ryan Fitzgerald. I'm an outdoor recreation major at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse, and I'm completing my internship here with the parks department. For my internship, I have to complete a major project. And for mine, I decided to make a adopt a site program, which kinda just entails local community organizations, businesses, other groups adopting a park site, and three times a year coming out and helping with litter, minor garden bed maintenance, and weeding.

Chose this project because I kinda wanted to do something that I could maybe see come into effect and kinda I could see an impact in the community maybe eventually. The document and the agenda item is kinda just a summary of everything that I worked on along with some goals and the materials included in the project. I'm in contact with the La Crosse Loggers organization about potentially being the first organization that adopts a park site. Still kinda in the works with that. But, yeah, I've got the full project along with all the documents and supportive materials that the parks department might need to put the program into effect after I'm done with my internship here in a week.

And, yeah, that's all. Thank you.

Any questions from commissioners? Is that happening, the Cobham Park cleanup, their the loggers?

I'm still talking with Ben from the loggers. Hopefully, but I'm not a 100% sure how it's gonna work out so far. But they're in talks internally about potentially making that happen.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Counselor, did you have something that you were gonna ask? Go ahead.

Yeah. Ryan, thank you for that work. I think that's that's great. I do I also think there will there's a handful of organizations at UWL, right, that I think we can tap into as well to help with that. So thank you for bridging that.

Item number 26Dash0409, request to approve lease between the United States of America Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, and the city of La Crosse. And, okay, you are doing everything tonight.

Thank you. Yes. I'll represent this one on behalf of Jim. So what you have in front of you tonight is the lease for the Federal Aviation Administration. This is an existing site that has been, leased by that administration for from the historical documents that we provided.

It was commissioned in 1953. So some form of this technology existed in that location, has been there since 1953. I think the last I'm not entirely sure the last time a lease was signed with them, and that's because the leases have historically gone through private property ownership before that property was, transferred to the city. And so now this would be the first time that this lease, is under the city as a leaseholder. So, not much is, being altered from these leases.

We've been operating under the prior lease for quite some time now. So, this lease, the the biggest adjustment in here, would be that it was previously previously a a no cost lease. So we were, leasing this section of property to that administration at no cost. So now we will be garnering $1,500 from that lease on an annual basis for the entire term of the lease. The lease term will start at ten years and can have the option to be extended, after that ten years for an initial five year period and then revisit it again for an additional five year period as well.

One other item, if, we're not super familiar with where this location is, it is off of Rim Of The City Road. So that is up near the top of the bluff. So if you're going traversing to the Mathey Trail system, off of County Road FA, you would turn left onto Rim of the City Road. And just before you reach, kind of that dead end area of the road on the left hand side there, it's kind of it's discreet. It's a small fenced area about quarter of an acre.

There's two radio towers there with, a corrugated shed. It's fenced in and then, kinda tried to camouflage as well with some vegetation there. So if you've never noticed it before, it's it's been there for quite some time. But if you've never noticed it, then that's a good sign, the vegetation is doing its job.

Commissioner Kirsch? Yes. Thank you. That was my first question. Is that that thing at the end of VISTA one? So, yes, that's answered. What are your feelings about the if they can just abandon it and leave everything for us, part of that agreement.

They have been I guess it's it's not an ideal scenario, but they have been the been very excited to get this lease resigned with us. So they're very anxious to have something in place. So I don't foresee that happening. We've not had issues with that, in the past. So like I said, they've been the ones kind of wishing to formalize this with us, and so I don't see that being a future issue.

Probably not, but it's just like it kinda jumped out at me. It's like, well, you're just gonna dump it on us if you decide not to use it? But with the airport, they're probably gonna put a new technology in there before they before they abandon it.

Any other questions from commissioners?

Is this property that was acquired in a land swap up there? Is that how did we

The I do believe it was the property acquired in the land swap. The land swap was prior to my time here. So I apologize. I don't have a complete picture and details regarding the land swap, but I it was part of that transitional agreement.

All

right. Thank you.

Okay. Commissioner Wilson, can you turn your microphone off, please? Thank you. Alright. Any other questions from commissioners? Alright. If there's oh, commissioner Olson.

I just wanna make a motion to approve.

Okay. Motion to approve by commissioner Olson, second by commissioner Kirsch. Any other discussion? Alright. Then let's please vote.

And that motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Are you just there? Okay. Item 26Dash0398, request to approve beautification application for 1522 Green Bay Street.

Thank you. I'm also just gonna give an overview. This item and the following two items are very similar requests seeking approval of beautification permits. They do also happen to be the three or they're all three the same applicant. I'll let him speak to, the specific locations, but they are different locations, necessitating them to be different, three separate items.

But this beautification process is coming before you tonight as part of an administrative process that's outlined in our ordinances currently. Prior to these coming to this board, they are reviewed by our department, the inspection department, as well as the engineering department. If they have any comments, we provide those back to the applicant and work with them from there to make sure that they're adjusted appropriately into each application. And then it comes to this board for approval. And once this board grants approval, they are granted that opportunity to beautify those spaces. Some of them are boulevards, traffic circles we've seen. The two tonight, the first two are boulevards. And then the last one is a section adjacent to one of our trail systems as well.

Does anyone have any questions for our staff? No. Does the applicant wish to speak? If you want to, you don't have to. Did you have a question for staff, commissioner Wilson?

So these, I guess the applications look very professionally done. I'm interested in how this came about and maybe we can hear from the. Company.

Let Eric speak to that directly. Yes, there's major talent involved in those applications, Thank for

you.

Thank you. My name is Eric Sampson. Thanks for having me here tonight for the first application, fifteen twenty two Green Bay Street. So I work for Cooley Region Ecoscapes in La Crosse as their as their lead landscape designer, which is why it's digitized, and, we have software to make it look, you know, professional. Thank you.

So our our shop currently has a very large rain garden on our property, and and so it it seemed only fitting that we would want to expand the opportunity for stormwater infiltration, which is why we are seeking to turn our boulevard section into this this planting space, planted with native vegetation that stays under the height restrictions and recommendations set forth by the parks department as well as giving people an opportunity to see an alternative for otherwise difficult stretch of Halon to maintain and keep alive and keep looking nice. This will provide a pretty significant boost to the local biodiversity, wonderful opportunities to see bumblebees and butterflies, etcetera, and again, while also also staying underneath the height restrictions so it's not flopping into the road. We do also have so two of the trees have been installed already. The third tree, we couldn't get because it was November. So we'd be looking to plant that third tree, and we have the walkways.

The flagstone are in place as well already, so that allows people when they're getting out of their cars, they can walk on the steppers onto the sidewalk from the road. We feel like it would be a a wonderful extension of the of the impact that our local building has already had on that on that area, and I think it would be a wonderful addition. So that's why we're proposing it. Any questions?

Any questions? Okay. Do I have a commissioner Kirsch? Yes. I move to approve. Motion to approve by commissioner Kirsch. Second by council member Weston. Any discussion? Alright. Then let's please vote. Oh, Commissioner Olson.

Are we we're only doing the first one. Correct?

We're gonna do

the one at a time.

Okay. Thank you.

Yep. And that passes unanimously. Item twenty six dash zero three nine nine, request to approve beautification application for Bud Hendrickson Trail section. Any do you feel that you've told us everything you need to tell us, Sammy Meyer?

Because this section isn't necessarily a boulevard space. It's a little bit more unique and allows for a few different additional species in that area, so we don't have to worry about some of the standard restrictions with height limits, etcetera. So an exciting opportunity. Okay.

Does anyone have any questions for our applicant? I would yes. Commissioner Wilson?

So who owns the property? It's Bud Henriksen Trail is is According

to the La Crosse County parcel data, this particular section of the Bud Henriksen Trail is owned by the city of La

Crosse. Okay. So we're beautifying parkland. Okay. I guess so. Yeah. Okay, thank you.

Commissioner Olson.

Motion to approve.

Motion to approve by Olson, second by Commissioner Kirsch. Any discussion or questions? All right. Then can we please vote? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. 260400, request to approve beautification application for 1907 Lumis Street. Anything else we should know, or are we are we good? Okay. Alright.

Commissioner Kirsch? I move to approve. Motion to approve by commissioner Kirsch, second by commissioner Olson. Any discussion or questions? Alright. Then let's please vote. And that motion passes unanimously. Thank you for being here. Oops. I lost my agenda.

Item 20 six-four zero two, request to approve the memorandum of understanding between the City of La Crosse Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department and Friends of the Blufflands.

I'm back again. A quick overview. Memorandums of understandings come before this board annually for all of our Friends organizations. And so the first one we have tonight is our Friends of the Blufflands organization. All memorandums of understanding are an opportunity for us as a city to showcase the partnerships and collaboration between these friendship organizations.

Each has an expertise in their area, and so we're excited to bring these forward tonight. This MOU does not have any changes from last year to this year, aside from date updates and maybe some signature line adjustments as well. So this one, yeah, we've seen this last year. Friends of the Blufflands. We have a member on our board, know.

I'm not sure if he's willing to maybe speak to the FBL and the, involvement and efforts that they put in on our Blufflands. We have some really unique resources up there. They're focused on restoration and preservation of the unique habitats that exist in those areas, specifically prairie or, excuse me, bluffland prairies. Those are rare ecosystems. We also have some really unique and protected species in those areas as well. And so that group works towards preservation of that in collaboration with the city.

Any questions from commissioners? Commissioner, Councilmember Weston? I move to approve. Motion to approve by Councilmember Weston, second by Commissioner Olson. Any other discussion? Alright. Then let's please vote. And that vote motion passes unanimously with one abstention. Item 26 dash zero four zero three, request to approve the memorandum of understanding between the city of La Crosse Parks, Recreation, and Forestry Development department and Friends of La Crosse Marsh.

Okay. Okay. Just wanna touch on their expertise, area of expertise in our partnership with Friends of the Marsh. It's not evident by the the group's name. Their focus with us is the management and maintenance of our marsh habitat and marsh area. So instrumental in some of the recent projects throughout the marsh, benefiting the transportation, ecological quality, hydrological quality, recreation in the marsh as well. So they've been huge supporters of, most recently, the Grand Crossing Trail reconstruction and, some of the hydrological benefits that's gonna give the marsh and surrounding areas. And I believe Chuck is here if he is interested. Not sure. Give him the floor if he is.

We do have one person registered to speak here in favor. Can you please say your name and the city where you live?

Yes. Good evening. I'm Chuck Lee. I'm president of the Friends of Marsh. Here just to speak in favor of of approving this MOU. It's it's unchanged from last year. We go through a review process every spring and and then, of course, come back to see you about it. We're very pleased with this with this agreement with city parks. I think it it has normalized and established a good firm relationship between the city and between our our organization. We're very pleased about it.

The I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have about it. Otherwise, I really do urge your support.

Any questions? Commissioner Olson?

Thank you, chairperson Charles. Chuck, this is a little off the MOU, but it's about the marsh. When Excel put in those new lines and they went underground and along Lang Drive, those old lines that are above ground that are going across the marsh, are those still being used? Yes.

There's one line that that is not. It's it's totally dead. And I had expected that to come out this winter when the ice was on the marsh, but it it did not. And I think that's just an opportunistic thing by Excel Energy. Two of the poles for that deadline, we have talked to Xcel about putting nesting platforms for osprey on those poles just to try to take advantage of that so that maybe we can lure the osprey away from the XL substation.

I doubt we can do that, but frankly, try it maybe. The eventually, all those lines are gonna be replaced. All of those from the substation heading east and then north, and they'll be they'll be replaced with they won't disappear. They're just gonna be much bigger much bigger poles, much higher up. And that work has been kind of talked about now for really years. So and I have no clue when it's gonna

Maybe in your comments you addressed it and I just didn't catch it.

But there's that

one line of poles that goes east to west about halfway down Lang Drive, more towards the substation, I guess. And it looks like some of those wires are not in use. Yeah. That's Looks like Jay might wanna say something.

That I think that's the one I

was referring to.

Okay. Is.

Okay. A

dead deadline. Okay. And not exactly sure whether the wires are even there anymore.

Excuse me, Chuck. I just wanted to jump in here, Commissioner Olson. So this is this is related to some internal meetings with Excel that we're doing right now. And so I think we need to stick to this MOU, and we'll be back with an update as soon as we can publicly share that. So thank you.

Thanks, Jay. Yep.

Okay. Alright. Any more discussion or questions? Alright. Can I move to approve? Didn't we already do that? All right. We have now. All right. Well, motion to approve by Councilmember Weston. I see second by Commissioner Wilson. Any discussion? Right. Unless, please vote. And that motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. Our last item, 20 six-four zero four, request to approve the memorandum of understanding between the City of La Crosse Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department and Outdoor Recreation Alliance of the Seven Rivers region.

Thank you. Similar to the earlier MOUs, there are no changes to this MOU beside state's signature lines this year. Aura is really instrumental in the outdoor recreation opportunities throughout the whole city. I think maybe their most well known efforts occur in the Blufflands, but they do offer expansive opportunities and encourage people to just simply their tagline is get outside. And so this MOU kind of outlines that collaboration and willingness to partner with that group and share those same goals goals with them as well. Okay. Any questions for staff? Commissioner Kirsch? I move to approve.

Motion to approve by commissioner Kirsch, second by commissioner Olson. Any discussion? Alright. Then let's please vote. Alright. And that motion passes unanimously. That is the end of our agenda. I wanna thank all the staff members who put together this agenda and all the work that went into all of the items behind the scene. Thank you very much for your time and for the work that you do. Good night. And thanks to everybody here who's volunteering to serve on this important commission. Right. Good night.