Good evening all,

The City of Eagan and their consultants had a small group discussion tonight titled "What Kind of Park System Do Eagan Residents Want?"

There was an initial presentation with statistics: In 2005 Eagan's population is 67091, 30% are under 18 years old and 67% are under 40. I found it interesting that 52% of Eagan has moved here since 1995. The "out migration" of the population is mostly two groups: 15 to 24 year olds go to school elsewhere and 55 to 65 year olds leave to retire.

By 2020 the estimated population is 70,437 with about 50% under 40 years old and fewer children then now.

A factoid: the average American has 36 hours of leisure time a week, an average of 5.1 hours a day much of it spent with television. Another factoid that I like: if I got the numbers accurately, since 1996 1,065 communities have approved of Open Space referendums totaling 27 billion dollars.

We were divided into two groups that brainstormed on (1) "what we like about Eagan's parks now" and (2) what will be needed for these parks in 15 years. The answers were diverse (including a drive in movie theater) but Open Space acquisition and preservation were clearly participant priorities, I attended another forum put on by the same group two days earlier and that group also valued Open Space. Pat McCarthy, Tony Caponi, Eagan Core Greenway were also included.

Good news for all you who would like to participate---everybody in Eagan can vote on park preferences on-line after Feb. 22. The URL below my signature is the City of Eagan home page discussing their vision. Clicking on the following 20/20 Vision Project for parks, recreation, and open space will take you to the full information page noting that these surveys can be done on-line or on paper found in many government places around Eagan.

My sense is that this survey is very important, It is being done by a consulting group at some expense and members of the Advisory Parks Commission and staff from the Parks and Recreation Department have attended every meeting and are quite interested in the results of each group. Also, it seems to me that they feel the citizen feedback is good quality and I agree. It would be good if they received a large, statistically significant number of surveys. Your participation in this survey is important, so please consider taking a few minutes to weigh in with your Park and Open Space priorities.

Thank you,

John Ward

www.ci.eagan.mn.us/live/default.asp

www.EaganCoreGreenway.org