Memo OCT 14th Open House
.. .11.
e CITY OF HOPKINS
MEMORANDUM
Date: July 7,1995
To: Hopkins City Council members
From: Eileen Harvala
Re: Oct. 14 open house
In February you outlined priority projects for the first-year community relations efforts,
including a citywide open house. For the past two months, a committee of employees
from each city department has been working to develop plans for an open house, which
is planned for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14. It will be held in conjunction with the
Hopkins Fire Department's annual open house. This citywide open house will augment,
not detract from, the Fire Department's highly successful annual event. It has the full
support of Fire Chief George Magdal who is co-chair of the open house committee.
. The goal of the open house is to showcase Hopkins' facilities, programs and services.
Minnetonka held a similar event last year, which also coincided with its fire department
open house and Cities Week, drawing 5,000 people. Minnetonka is planning a similar
event this year.
In Hopkins, there will be events taking place at the Hopkins Activity Center and
Historical Society, City Hall, Fire Station, Police Department, Pavilion and Public Works.
Fire Department
o Traditional fire-safety demonstrations and displays, including fire trucks
0 Food - hot dogs, pop, ice cream, mini-doughnuts
0 Live broadcast of Fire Department open house on Paragon Channel 34, including
interviews with employees organizing activities at other sites
City Hall
0 City service and department displays upstairs, possibly including Inspections,
Water, Recycling, Community Development, Parks and Recreation, Crime
Prevention. Recycling, Water and Parks and Recreation likely will have their
displays at Public Works
o City Board, Commission and Committee displays downstairs in the Raspberry
Room, including Chemical Health Commission, Neighborhood Advisory Board,
. and Human Rights Commission
0 Clowns and balloons - there are lots of Fluffy and Spot balloons
ohmemo.sam
~ Ii
Open House Page 2
0 Free giveaways such as pencils, magnets, etc.
a Hopkins information such as annual report and Close~up on Hopkins Star Tribune -
feature
o Videos running in the City Council Chambers
o Taping of activities at City Hall, and other sites for use later in putting together a
program
a Invitations sent to past mayors, city council members and employees
Police Department
0 Supervised tours of the jail facilities and gun range
0 McGruff the Crime Dog
0 K-9 unit talk
0 HEAT team equipment demonstration
0 Halloween safety bags
Activity Center
0 Most of the groups at the Center are planning to be involved
o A staff person will be in the game room
a Demonstrations of quiet and more active activities
0 Children's entertainment
0 Root beer floats
0 Raffle
0 Historical Society will be open e
Public Works
o Two-hours of free ice time at the Pavilion; display board on the Pavilion chiller
system making ice
0 Static equipment displays in the garage, including front-end loader, garbage truck,
backhoe, vac-all, boom truck, and swap loader
0 Rides on new bucket truck
0 Giveaways, including seedlings, mini-hard hats with Hopkins/Public Works logo
0 Solid waste display, including a cube of crushed cans; guess the number of cans
and the prize is possibly a savings bond
John Schedler is monitoring all of the activities closely from a liability insurance
coverage and budget standpoints. He will need to know the specifics of all
demonstrations and displays. As an added note, due to past vandalism and theft
problems the fire department will be restricting access to the fire trucks.
We really want people to visit all of the sites to see what Hopkins has to offer all of its
residents. We are. exploring the possibility of renting some trolleys, hay rides or, if
necessary, bus to help the police squad car and fire trucks transport people from one
site to another. As an incentive, we are going to make this similar to a treasure hunt.
For example, a map will have questions to which you can only find the answers at .
Public Works, or at the Activity Center. Answer the questions and get a Fire Department
ohmemo.sam
.- -
. -
Open House Page 3
T-shirt as the ultimate prize when you turn in the completed map at the Fire Station. We
e want to make this fun, yet show off what the city has to offer as well.
We are exploring having a catch-their-interest activity taking place a each site right at
10 a.m., so everyone doesn't initially migrate to City Hall or the Fire Station. We also
plan on having greeters so if a lot of people do initially start at City Hall, they can be
encouraged to hop the trolley, fire truck, squad car, or hay ride to take them to Public
Works and the Pavilion. We plan to schedule one set of activities from 10 a.m. to noon,
and repeat them from noon to 2 p.m.
We will have greeters at each site, possibly employees' older children. They will help
distribute maps and direct people.
We would like the City Council members to act as chief greeters and circulators, with
perhaps one of you at each site, which can be rotated as the day progresses. Top Hats
will be provided.
We want to keep this simple and fun, fun, fun or, it seems, food, food, food.
We are trying to hold the costs down with each department or division paying for their
own giveaways. George Magdal has asked the Hopkins Area Jaycees to pay for 1,200
shirts. He also is asking for donations of food from his usual sources.
e Other costs
0 Hiring Susan Euler to do the live broadcasts
0 Renting the trolleys, hay wagons or alternate mode of transportation
0 Hiring clowns or other entertainment
0 Printing flyers
0 Printing treasure maps
0 Signs
0 Giveaways by department
- -
-
ohmemo.sam
.
~ ~.
.
-
e