5.a) Chair ReportPRC Chair report — for December 3, 2018
City Council meeting, Nov 17
At the November city council, I reported on the following:
• We are now promoting our learn to skate and pleasure skating programs, including bus
transportation to the rink from the Scandia Elementary school.
• Ice rink attendants have been recommended for hire.
• At the December 3, 2018 PRC meeting, we will discuss how to promote hockey rink advertising,
using a 'your name here' banner. For potential city council approval in December.
• We are preparing a survey for recreational interest in Scandia. The format will be a Survey Monkey
survey as well as an old-fashioned paper survey we can hand out, likely to the Lions. Our original
focus was senior programming; Mayor Maefsky asked if this would also include the younger age
group. Additionally, she asked that a survey link be included with the Scandia Then and Now
Facebook page. I explained that a full survey may require a modest cost for added survey monkey
capability.
• We are anxiously anticipating approval of our capital expenditure recommendations, for
implementation in 2019.
Discussion with Doran O'Brien reRardine a Familv Movie night
Mayor Maefsky asked me to follow up with Doran O'Brien of Edward Jones regarding his interest in
sponsoring a family movie night sometime near the holidays. As discussed at the November PRC
meeting, I explained that the PRC is gathering information regarding its programming offerings and thus
not ready to sponsor. However, there is some precedence for this kind of business sponsored event.
Mr. O'Brien has the option to contact the city office to reserve the community center and work with city
staff directly to advertise his event.
Query to reserve the Woitowicz rink for FLHA event.
Scott O'Donnell, a Scandia resident active in the Forest Lake Hockey on Association, contacted me asking
if he could reserve the rink for a Squirts game against a team from Grand Rapids on Sunday December
16. 1 explained that the policy for the rink does not allow reservation of the rink on weekends.
Mr. O'Donnell was very gracious and understanding. He was also concerned of the timing of the event
and whether ice would be ready on that date. He went on to explain that he felt that if policy would
allow, he could easily fill a weekend or single weekend day event of similar scale as Vinterfest (MN Cup
formerly Scanley cup), raising the question if policy should be changed to allow a limited number of
weekend reservations for individual games of reservation, beyond the current Vinterfest event.
Plan for community outreach regarding programming
The purpose of a programming survey is to identify possible offerings by the city / PRC. The original
intent was senior programming (see note above). On November 9, a sample survey has been sent to the
PRC members for feedback and discussion at the December 3 meeting. This survey may potentially be
on the city website, distributed via NextDoor, and on Facebook sites.
Survey Monkey surveys are free, with limited capability, analysis, and survey respondents. For an
additional $37, up to 1000 surveys can be responded to and better tools can be used to summarize and
analyze the results. At this rate, the survey would need to be set, competed, and collected in one
month.
The initial list of interest items is as follows. We will review and refine at the December 3 meeting.
• Aerobics / fitness classes
• Bicycling Club
• Bridge
• Crafts
• Cribbage
• Family Movie Night
• Gardening
• Health Education
• Healthy Cooking and Baking
• Pickleball
• Scandia History
• Tennis
• Travel
• Walking club
• Yoga
Respectfully submitted,
Terry Gorham, PRC Chair