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.”
Some agenda items of interest:
–6:30 PM PUBLIC HEARING. Plans for improving the park building at Holmes Park, next to Marcy-Holmes School.
–(Admin./Finance Committee) Proposal by the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation to upgrade a baseball field at Northeast Park, and build one on land that MPRB leases from Xcel Energy at 2900 Marshall St. NE.
–(Admin./Finance Committee) A routine action on 2014 Parkway and street light upgrades; 3-1/2 miles of paving mill and overlay, 7-1/2 miles of sealcoating, 76 new street lights.
–(Operations & Environment Committee) Permits for removing milfoil and other invasive water plants. It appears that the Park Board is removing the invasive plants with mechanical harvesters rather than using herbicides. Last year they tried having Scuba divers remove the plants in some areas, and will do some of that again this year.
–(Planning Committee and full Board) Citizen Engagement plan, and setting up an appointed CAC, for a Master Plan and beach/trail/playground upgrades at Nokomis/Hiawatha Park. The Citizen Engagement plan will include a new program in which interested members of the public can use Google Maps to mark places in the park where they have noticed improvements are needed.
–(Planning Committee and full Board) Citizen Engagement plan and setting up an appointed CAC for tennis court upgrades at Martin Luther King, Jr., Park. The upgrades are to be done by the non-profit Inner City Tennis Foundation.
–(Full Board) Architectural contract for Michael P. Schmidt Operations Center at 1700 Marshall NE. Architecture costs $496,000. The operations center is to be a base for maintenance crews on the Northside and in Northeast. Its total cost is estimated at $4.67 million.
The complete agenda, with staff reports, for the MPRB Board of Commissioners meeting on March 19, 2014 is at http://minneapolisparksmn.iqm2.com/Citizens/Default.aspx
Board meeting agendas and related information are posted on the above web page two business days prior to meetings. Webcasts of MPRB regular board meetings are posted on the same web page two to five business days following each meeting and are available for viewing, along with webcasts for the previous two months.
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.
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.
The Park Board’s website is www.minneapolisparks.org. The phone number is 612-230-6400.
John Chaffee
