5:00 P.M. REGULAR BOARD MEETING. The meeting will be held in the boardroom at Park Board headquarters, 2117 West River Road, just north of Broadway Pizza.
5:30 P.M. OPEN TIME. Speakers can call 612-230-6400 before 3:00 p.m. the day of the meeting to sign up or they can sign up at the Board meeting prior to the start of “Open Time.”
6:00 P.M. PUBLIC HEARING on Superintendent’s recommended budget for 2014 (Administration & Finance Committee). Individuals who want to speak can sign up at the meeting. The budget and related material can be found at http://www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=768
6:30 P.M. PUBLIC HEARINGS (Planning Committee). Individuals who want to speak can sign up at the meeting.
–Minnehaha Refectory Reinvestment Plan Public Hearing (Plans included in agenda packet).
–West River/James I. Rice Parkways Trail Improvements Public Hearing (this is the trail in the area of the Stone Arch Bridge, the Guthrie, and Gold Medal Park. Plans are included in the agenda packet).
Other agenda items of interest include the following:
–Full Board (consent agenda): Setting 45-day public comment period for draft Urban Agriculture Plan. There is unlikely to be any discussion at this meeting, since starting the formal comment period is a routine action. A copy of the Plan is included at Pages 17-36 of the Full Board packet. Among other things, it calls for reducing pesticide use, creating community gardens in parks, increasing the availability of local/sustainable food at park facilities, and planting edible crops, such as fruit trees, on park land for the public to harvest.
–Adminstration/Finance: Consideration of draft Park Dedication policy. The Legislature has authorized the City and the Park Board to require developers to dedicate land, or make cash payments, to provide parks for new residents and new employees who will be brought in by development. This policy is intended to spell out the details.
–Full Board (postponed from October 16 meeting): Award of $486,000 contract for new irrigation well at Meadowbrook Golf Course. The staff report says the well is needed because the water in Minnehaha Creek, which is now being used, has been found to contain zebra mussels which are likely to clog all the irrigation pipes on the golf course.
The complete agenda, with staff reports, for the MPRB Board of Commissioners’ meeting on Wednesday November 8, 2013 is at http://minneapolisparksmn.iqm2.com/Citizens/Default.aspx
Also of interest and now available to the commissioners and the public are the monthly reports that Superintendent Miller has initiated for construction permits and for Planning Department projects. The availability of these reports is one of the important changes instituted by Superintendent Miller. They are normally in the agenda packet for the first regular meeting of the month, but don’t seem to be included in this packet.
View Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board meetings live from 5-9 p.m. on the Minneapolis Government Meeting Channel 79 on Comcast Cable. You may also view live meetings online on the Channel 79 webpage: http://www.minneapolismn.gov/tv/79
Regular meetings are typically re-telecast on Channel 79 on Saturdays and Sundays at 11 a.m. and on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month at 5 p.m. Telecast schedules are subject to change.
Webcasts of MPRB regular board meetings are posted on the MPRB website two to five business days following each meeting and are available for viewing, along with webcasts for the recent two months, at www.minneapolisparks.org.
Board meeting agendas and related information are posted on www.minneapolisparks.org two business days prior to meetings.
The Park Board’s website is www.minneapolisparks.org. The phone number is 612-230-6400.
Arlene Fried
Co-founder of Park Watch
