Park and Tourism Committee — Minutes

Park and Tourism Meeting Minutes Tuesday April 7, 2026, at 4:30 pm at Town Hall 1) Meeting was called to order by Chair Flitcroft at 4:33 pm 2) Co-Chair Charvat was absent and excused all others were present 3) A quorum for doing business was declared 4) Motion to approve the agenda was made by Leah, seconded by Donna 5) Amotion to approve the minutes was made by Leah and seconded by Ruben 6) Comments were made by George Hubner about the rec agreement with the City, the Halloween Party and the lack of invoices from the City. 7) Communications- Tom Thiele updated the committee about all the work being done at the park, mowing, sand and volleyball nets going up soon etc. The park looks great. Leah updated the committee that we received a donation from the Garden Club again this year and we thank them. 8) City reps Administrator Nick Griffin and Rec Director Tom Klug joined us for discussions about the agreement that the town has with the City Rec department. Members of the Committee feel the town is paying too much for this service. According to City reports, the number of residents that took part was 326 people at $28k for the year 2025, that is an average of $86 for each participant. In comparison, the average discount per user is approximately $15. The committee maintains that while we think it is a great program with good activities offered, it isn’t a fair return on the investment. Nick Griffin mentioned that he does think it is fair as the town has more than 200 housing units than the city. The city reps maintain that they feel basing the cost on the current census numbers is a fair deal with the Town. A motion was made by Leah to allow the City and Town Administrators to enter renegotiations for this contract with the City. Motion seconded by Ruben, all ayes. 9) The committee was informed that the DNR does not recognize the commercial boat businesses any different than an individual and since we adopted their fees, we need to maintain the same for commercial businesses. 10) Leah updated the committee that she had not had time to meet with the subcommittee and there are no updates. Donna made a motion to leave the playground where it is at Community Park with a second from Jim. Ruben opposed Leah in favor. There was discussion that the new playground equipment could be placed inside the pavilions on the side of the road as opposed to the lake side, in case the playground ever is moved, that is where it would be best situated. 11) We were presented with 2 quotes from Baxter and Woodman engineer, Brett. Leah said that Park does not have money in the budget to pay for either one of these plans so it was recommended that we send it to Finance to see if money could be found to address the issue. Motion was made by Leah and seconded by Ruben to send those quotes to Finance Committee to help find capital. 12) Park pavilions- at the last meeting we discussed how maybe the pavilions need to be replaced. Leah mentioned that she had gone down to look at their stability and while they seemed stable, they could certainly use a few boards replaced and paint. 13) John created a seasonal landscape ad to be placed. Ruben mentioned that he had reached out to DDTech to see if there was any interest but hadn’t heard back. We decided that we will have John place the ad if we haven’t heard of any interest within a week’s time. 14) We have had some trouble with the kiosks at the launch. Our season pass holders would like a solution to printing a receipt with every visit, we would like to investigate the possibility of Rich having a handheld card reader so he can help on busy weekends, and also Rich could be trained in troubleshooting the machines on the weekends. 15) FOP would like some volunteers for the Lakefest celebration. 16) A recommendation was made to pay the monthly bills and waiver the DLIA fee for the boater safety course 17) George made comments about the rec program 18) Date of next meeting is Tuesday May 5, 2026, at T own Hall at 4:30 pm 19) Leah made a motion to adjourn with a second from Ruben. None opposed L Flitcroft 4/29/2026