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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025.10.01 PRMMINUTES OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION FOR THE CITY OF BROOKLYN CENTER IN THE COUNTY OF HENNEPIN AND THE STATE OF MINNESOTA REGULAR SESSION OCTOBER 21, 2025 CALL TO ORDER Chair Jeffrey called the meeting to order at 6:31 pm. ROLL CALL Chair Noah Jeffrey, Vice Chair Travis Bonovsky, Commissioners Gail Ebert, Jack MacMillan, and Jill Dalton were present. Also present were Public Works Director Liz Heyman, Parks & Recreation Deputy Director Carissa Goebel and Tim Pratt of the Hennepin Recycle Group. Commissioners Julie Bourque and Matthew Kraft were excused. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Commissioner Ebert moved to approve the agenda. Commissioner MacMillan seconded the motion. The agenda was approved unanimously. APPROVAL OF MAY MINUTES Commissioner Dalton moved to approve the minutes. Vice Chair Bonovsky seconded the motion. The minutes were approved unanimously. NEW BUSINESS PARK CONTAINER ASSESSMENT Commissioners Dalton and MacMillan did an assessment of the containers in most of the parks. Overall they were pleased with the finding. Some were already put away since it was the end of summer. Northport had some that were far apart from each other. Centennial Park pavilion had many carts without stickers. Some recommendations for future are to ensure all carts have recycling stickers in place, obtain trash stickers from the County, educate all staff members that carts need to be co-located and complete another assessment in the spring. HRG RECYCLING UPDATE HRG Recycling Manager Tim Pratt gave a presentation about an assessment at five parks (Willow Lane, Kylawn, Northport, Centennial and Firehouse). He showed best practices including co-location of the carts and clear communication. Manager Pratt also discussed what could go wrong like inconvenient containers when they are not paired together can often cause contamination because people will throw trash in whatever container is closest. Illegal dumping and trash placed in the wrong container can occur. He also discussed what we can do better. Keeping carts together and clearly labeling them can get good results. Relying on partnerships can also help. Director Heyman discussed that parks staff were given the presentation and more education. Public Works staff is unable to sort through recycling due to current set up – it takes a lot of staff time to do two full rounds of trash and recycling. May need to ask City Council for an additional truck as it currently takes two full-time staff members each round. Another option is to discuss what services community would be most comfortable with cutting back in order to continue trash and recycling hauling that way. Commissioner Ebert asked what the cost would be to have someone else take our recycling versus us purchasing a specialized truck. Director Heyman discussed it would be a second truck to be a specific recycling truck instead of using one for both garbage and recycling like we have now. Manager Pratt discussed it’s labor intensive to tip with one truck on the ground and sort. Director Heyman indicated it would also be a smaller truck that doesn’t require a CDL and could have seasonals be able to complete this job duty. A new truck could cost around $115,000 in capital outlay and ongoing replacement costs for a new truck. Commissioner Ebert asked about what the staff hours of having the staff go around twice versus once with two trucks. Director Heyman said it takes roughly half day with two people in the truck and then another half day with two people to go back around. Will test it out this winter and spring before considering asking for the funds. Commissioner Dalton asked if it would be feasible to pick up the recycling only every other week. Director Heyman indicated that would be something they could look into. Chair Jeffrey asked about co-location and how we know where the containers should be. Manager Pratt indicated at the pavilions they would be a set at corners and it is dependent on how the tables are located. Chair Jeffrey asked Manager Pratt asked how the assessment stacked against other parks he had been assessing. Manager Pratt indicated he didn’t visit all the parks but he did not see anything alarming and with the continuation of the best practices and small tweaks it could improve. Commissioner Dalton asked if there was any way to make the recycling cart more difficult to throw trash in there. Manager Pratt indicated he has not seen any. Manager Pratt also gave the update to the 2026 recycling that was presented to the City Council on October 13, 2025. COMMUNITY CENTER UPDATE Deputy Director Goebel informed the commission that the City Council had given staff direction to move forward with the $5.1 million in State Bonding along with a City contribution for a total of $5.2 million dollar project. This will address high priority deferred maintenance including a pool upgrade. The project will be ongoing for approximately the next 18 months. FUTURE MEETING The next meeting will be held November 18th at the Community Center at 6:30pm. Commissioner Ebert moved to adjourn the meeting. Vice Chair Bonovsky seconded. The decision was unanimous.