FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Winter Park Summit Notes – September 10, 2015

Meeting attendees included; Jim Reckinger, David Gorringe, John Kendrick, Senator Foung Hawj, Dale Thompson, Ann Rykken, Kevin Johnson, Steve Gorden, Ahvo Taipale,  Nick Riley, RC Commissioner – Victoria Reinhardt, Jon Oyanagi, Andrew Poffenberger, John Baker, Mark McCabe

Legislative Update from Jon Oyanagi

Jon submitted the winter recreation project for the 2016 bonding bill. This is on the preliminary list along with other Ramsey County bond requests. The upcoming legislative session is projected to begin on March 4, 2016.

Bonding Tour Schedule

Nick Riley shared the bonding tour schedule with the committee. Nick stated that the house tour is expected to take place on October 15^th beginning at 8am. The tour group is expected to spend approximately 30 minutes at each location. The senate is scheduled to conduct tours on December 17^th. A specific tour time has not been determined at this point for the 17^th. There is also a staff tour scheduled for Monday September 14 at 3pm at Battle Creek. Members of Endurance United said they would attend and ask a couple of high school cross country ski coaches to attend as well.

Committee members asked Nick Riley questions related to strategy and potential audience members to attend the tours. Nick commented that for the staff tour not many people were needed but during the senate and house tours a broader audience showing support of the project would be appropriate. The comment was made that members of the house often want details related to benefits to the overall state as well as economic impact estimations.

MN Amateur Sports Commission & St. Paul Parks and Rec Meeting – Jon Oyanagi

Jon met with the MN Amateur Sports Commission and the director of St. Paul’s Parks and Recreation Department, Mike Hahm to discuss with them potential partnership opportunities regarding the winter park facility and surrounding area. The result of the meeting what that there are not currently opportunities to partner on the development of facilities as different priorities and needs exist for each of the parties. However there is support from the MN Amateur Sports Commission and the St. Paul Parks and Recreation department for the project. Mike Hahm expressed concern over the current parking capacity and the impact on the recreation center. He communicated the need to see a short term and long term plan to address any parking and building concerns.

Sub-Committee Reports

Operations – David Gorringe reported that the operations group has been touring facilities including Elm Creek, Theodore Worth, Como Park, and Hyland. They have been trying to obtain revenue reports but have had difficulty getting sufficient information. Their plan is to create a budget based off of the information they have gathered and fill in the blanks with best estimates then move forward. A suggestion was made to possibly obtain Green Acres usage data and revenue reports.

Lobbying – John Baker reported that their sub-committee is planning on attending the upcoming bonding project tours for the winter park project. John offered to gather some members to be a supporting audience during the tour. John also reported that Endurance United is willing to be the fiduciary agent as the committee raises funds for the project. A lengthy discussion followed during which Ann Rykken reported that she had approached the Friends of the Parks organization and asked them if they would be willing to serve as the fiduciary agent but they declined due to limited staff resources. After the overall discussion the committee recommended that it name Endurance United as the fiduciary agent with the possibility of forming a new 501c3 organization in the future as further facility development is needed.

Fundraising – Ann Rykken reported that the fundraising group has been gathering grant lists, race result lists, and potential individual donor lists. The fundraising sub-committee has a meeting scheduled for October 5 at 7pm in the evening at the Shoreview Library to discuss ideas for how to raise funds for the project. Ann went on to report other work of the committee including their efforts to engage the Friends of the Parks as the fiduciary agent.

Champions and Stakeholders – Kevin Johnson reported that he has been with Ahvo and Andrew to identify a list of potential project champions. Kevin asked for a list of names of the legislators who will be attending the tours. There was a discussion about the key players involved in the recommendation process for bonding projects which includes the Governor and District Council members.

Overall Site Plan Review – Mark McCabe shared the recent work of the RCPR planning division staff who developed a draft of Winter Recreation Development Plan. Committee members reviewed the document but did not have time to provide specific feedback. Jon Oyanagi commented that the operations sub-committee could further review the document and help answer questions presented in the development plan document. Mark also shared an illustration of an alternate development site within the Battle Creek property that the planning staff identified. The alternate site represents a different option to locate some facilities such as additional parking. The final program will determine what facilities and amenities will be a part of future phases.

Social Media Plan Suggestions – Mark McCabe shared a few communications documents including an online petition that could be distributed through social media efforts as well as the one page fact sheet that Mark VanGerpen had put together. The committee recommended that we distribute the petition closer to the snow season to capture more people and create momentum for the project. Mark also shared several social media messages and twitter posts that Mark VanGerpen had assembled. Andrew Poffenberger communicated that he has been working on a website template for Make Snow East Metro. Mark VanGerpen had recommended that communications messages should come from an agency outside of Ramsey County to show community and grass roots support for the project but RCPR would distribute any messages via their website and social media outlets as well.

Future meeting date

A future meeting date of October 8^th from 6-8pm at the Ramsey County Parks building was set.

Other Items

Chris Sachs had provided Mark with a recommendation for a template illustrating various milestones along the process of doing this project. Chris had an idea to help provide some additional framework for committee members to work toward incremental achievements along the way. Mark McCabe will send out a draft document explaining this and get peoples feedback from the committee.