Hormel Stadium and Athletic Commission Meeting 10/14/26

AI-generated summary. Written by gemini-3.8-flash from the transcript below, which is the record. It may be incomplete or wrong; it does not report votes. Every item links to the moment it began.

The commission reviewed finances, approved past minutes, and discussed project planning and procurement for the upcoming $1 million Hormel Stadium turf replacement.

0:39 Permit and Use Applications — The commission noted that no new permit applications or facility requests were submitted for review.
1:09 Approval of Minutes — Approved the August 12 meeting minutes with an edit clarifying that replacing the scoreboard panel is cheaper than replacing the lights.
4:20 Finance Report — Accepted the finance report after reviewing a temporary paper deficit caused by pending account rollovers and noting incoming rental revenue from the Boston Ski & Sports Club.
6:10 Turf Replacement Update — Staff reported that City Council approved the $1 million appropriation for turf replacement, and outlined next steps to hire an engineering firm for subsurface assessments, target a July construction period, and determine sport lining configurations.
16:33 Next Meeting Scheduling — Scheduled the November meeting for November 4 to avoid the Veterans Day holiday.

[Brian Collins]: Waiting for the Hellmail Commission on October 14th. We'll call the meeting to order. We do have a quorum, although we are missing Janine today. And I apologize for the inconvenience. I am going off of my phone right now, so I really can't see everything. But yeah, why don't we get started? If you wouldn't mind, Janine, can you, yeah, go ahead, Kevin.

[Kevin Bailey]: I was going to say, if you want, we can kind of tell you the order of the agenda.

[Kevin Bailey]: Thank you. So first and foremost on the agenda, first one is petition applications and use of permits. Right now, we actually don't have any applications at this time. And towards the end of the season, obviously, most of the people who are renting have already done that this fall. Currently, we have nothing to review for permits or activities down there.

[Kevin Bailey]: Second agenda item is the approval meeting minutes for September 9th. If everyone has a minute to just quickly review the meeting notes and we can get approval.

[Kevin Bailey]: I mean, I know I had one minor thing. Had to do with the school.

[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah, it's the August 12th meeting minutes. The only thing was near the end on other business on the second bullet point, section two with lights on the scoreboard are hard to see when it's still bright out. Where I said it's cheaper to replace the lights rather than the panel, it's actually the opposite. It's cheaper to replace the panel than to replace the lights.

[Brian Collins]: Ryan, did you get a chance to see the minutes and ready to move forward?

[Brian Collins]: Awesome. All those in favor of accepting the August minutes with the corrections just noted, say aye. Opposed? Awesome. The ayes have it. Kevin, what's next on our agenda?

[Kevin Bailey]: It's our finance. Sorry, the open unfinished business was the approval of the meeting minutes of August 12th. If we want to take that to vote as well.

[Brian Collins]: Awesome, let's take a motion to approve the August meeting minutes as well. Those in favor? All opposed? The motion passes. Excellent.

[Kevin Bailey]: We are on the finance report. I kind of took a quick review of it and Janine, I know, thank you for making those comments as well. It looks like it hasn't been rolled over. So when you do look at Our finances right now, we are at a deficit, but that's obviously from not having the money of last year rolling over it to the account. The other part to this is we did just have a very large payment from BSSC. Typically, they just pay their July permit fees. They'll have another one in September, but they are our largest. private renter at Hormel. So, you know, when they come in, we're talking over $20,000 usually that that would be coming in from rental fees. So you'll see that also hitting books the end of October when I do my report.

[Brian Collins]: Awesome. I think we're okay noting what Kevin mentioned. Can we make a motion? Want to make a motion, Ryan?

[Brian Collins]: Excellent. So the finances are good there. What is next, Kevin?

[Kevin Bailey]: The only thing that I can add just kind of as an update, not necessarily gender item approval or anything. But, as you do know, from our last meeting, we talked about going to council and requesting the million dollars to fund. Replacing the chart that we did get that approved. So, we are going to have a budget of 1Million dollars to get the replacement. So we're just kind of working on the next steps now. My next goal is to bring in an engineer firm. One particularly I am looking at is Galen Associates, and they're the ones that have given those other proposals to do assessments for us, but it's also the ones that did the large construction project for Hormel over 13 years ago. So they were the people who originally put the turf down at Hormel. and the track. So I'd like to try to use them as the engineer firm to look at it again. It's very familiar with Ormel Stadium. Even the other vendors that I talked to to get quotes for turf replacements, they know Gale, and they actually know the people that I'm talking to directly. So they are a very large, well-known company. I think they're going to be really helpful if we can use them. Depending on procurement law, we might need to also get two other quotes, but I am hoping to bring in certainly an engineer to help out, help us write the scope of work, make sure that when we go out to bid, it's written in a very particular way to make sure that we are getting good contractors bidding on this project and that someone who really knows how to replace the term. The other part to this is also doing another type of assessment. So in this particular assessment, I'm talking with Gail, but I know this will be common for other vendors if we use a different engineer firm, is to do an assessment by actually cutting pieces of the turf and peeling back, looking at what the drainage looks like, looking at the gravel that's underneath. So when it does come time to remove the turf, There's really no surprises that there's already done some of those cuts to really know exactly what the condition is underneath that. That is something I also expressed to city council. That's why some people are quoting $600,000, $700,000, still asking for $1 million to have that high contingency, not knowing what it's gonna look like when it comes out. I do think it's money well spent before we remove the chart that we actually do that assessment better idea what the actual replacement cost is going to be ahead of time. And it avoids us having to do a change order or find something in the project.

[Brian Collins]: Kevin, have you given any thought as to the time frame when you're expecting any of this to start happening? Or is this like a spring or 2028? By goal.

[Kevin Bailey]: in an ideal situation is to do this for the month of July. And I know that's very specific. So it might not be, you know, it might not be reasonable. But talking with some vendors, I also said that as well, I would love to do the construction in July. It's usually a three to four week project. So if we can close down for the month of July to do this turf replacement, that's ideal. Some of the vendors said that's realistic. If we actually go out to bid, in the wintertime and we have read it by January or February that they might actually be able to have that availability for July. The reality is though, July is a very busy time for construction work and obviously most people who are going to be doing their stadiums are doing turf fields over are associated with the school and they also will probably be looking at June or July as construction dates.

[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah, absolutely. It is certainly the ideal time. It's just I'm gonna be asking the time that probably most people who are looking to replace the field are also gonna be looking. But I think it might be realistic if we can go out to bid and awarded by Judy Marty.

[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah, yes, we'll see. Fingers crossed. And that might be something, again, talking with the engineer firm, like, is that written down? You know, that might actually stop two people from bidding if they can't do the month of July. But, you know, two or three other companies can. You know, that would be great. But the month of July, it will affect some of our renters, but it's really not going to affect youth sports. It's not going to affect the athletic department. So making sure that the kids in MedFit and the people in MedFit are our core group. isn't going to be effective if we do it for July.

[Brian Collins]: When do you think you might be able to start that assessment? Is it like November, December?

[Kevin Bailey]: Still in the early phases, to be honest with you. I just talked to Gail this afternoon about it. They're going to try to get me a proposal sometime next week. And right once I get the proposal, I'm going to be asking procurement if I do need to secure two other quotes or not. Gail is telling me that this isn't a construction work. This would actually be falling more on the DPW. I forget the language that he used. I did ask if he can email it. We can talk to our procurement officer. But ultimately, as I said to them, it's gonna be up to our procurement office and our procurement officer whether or not we do need to solicit three quotes or if we go directly with Gail. But in an ideal situation that it does fall

[Brian Collins]: Excellent. That's really great news, Kevin. Do you need anything from the commission in order to move forward or that was just to report and keep us posted?

[Kevin Bailey]: This is report to keep posted, but I think what we'll have to do at some point in between is. Whether the commission needs to know if we're going with that firm or awarding the bed. I don't know if that's something that you guys need to vote on or that's something that. Certainly, I'm sure you want to be kept in the loop at our commission meetings when we actually do confirm an engineer when we do confirm who's awarded the bid. I'm not sure if that needs to go to vote or not. But the other part that I do think you guys will need to help with the voting for approval is what the new turf design is going to be. And this is something that I'm also gonna get started with talking with the school department and also with some of our youth sports. What do we wanna do for lines, right? Like that might be one of the biggest ones. Obviously we're gonna do the traditional football field.

And with turf, you have two different options. You can either sew the colored turf in the field, or you can paint it. To me, it makes sense that we would sew in the turf for football the way it currently is right now. So you would sew in football. We would certainly sew in 11 by 11 soccer. That's currently where we're at in OML as well. And you would sew in the center logo. What will kind of come up to debate is what other lines are we going to put in and should that be sewn in so it's permanent or should it be painted? Painted usually lasts an entire year, give or take, but it will require some maintenance of actually painting the line, estimating about a yearly basis. So it does add a little bit of maintenance. It does add a little bit of expense of painting it yearly at the same time because it is painted. a year or two or five years from now, we decide it's no longer needed, it has that ability to fade and go out. So that doesn't have to be as permanent. And that's, I think, where the Hormel Commission will be really helpful for you to review it and to get those ideas. Certainly, like I said, first talking with the athletic department, do we need to have girls lacrosse? Do we need to have boys lacrosse? I know soccer would like to put nine by nine soccer fields Um, so I'm sure there'll be a desire to put a lot of lines and a lot of field space at home. I'll be half the purpose. But the other part that we're going to also have to weigh in is, um, the more lines, obviously the more confusing it's going to be having multiple sport lines, um, on one field. So, you know, we're going to certainly have a, uh, a difficult task of really prioritizing which lines need to be at home, which one should be. either at the high school, at the new fields when the high school is being renovated, or does it need to stay on the grass fields?

[Brian Collins]: Sounds good. Any other questions, Ryan, on this topic? I think we're good.

[Brian Collins]: Excellent. And now we have Someone still waiting in the waiting room? Nope. Oh, awesome. Was there anything else on the agenda? No, that was it. It was a quick one today. Okay, excellent. Janine, if you wouldn't mind looking at the calendar and seeing what the second Wednesday for November would be?

[Unidentified]: The second Wednesday is the 11th, which is a holiday. I'm just going to bring that up.

[Brian Collins]: Oh, awesome. It's Veterans Day. That's right. So it looks like we either have to do, what, the 4th or the 18th? Correct. Does Kevin or Ryan, any of those a preference for you? Either one's working for me.

[Brian Collins]: So I'm gonna guess Janine probably wants to go earlier. So why don't we try the fourth? If that works for you, Janine. Yep, that works for me. Excellent. I think that's about it. Ryan, do you have any other comments or Kevin or anybody? Yeah. Excellent. Motion to adjourn. Any second?

[Brian Collins]: That's all right. Awesome. Meeting adjourned. Exactly. But thanks, everybody, for accommodating the change today. But thanks, Kevin. And thank you, Janine.