The Crookston Park Board held their meeting at the Sixth Street Landslide park on Monday afternoon. They had their meeting at the park to see the new flag pole project and to also see the park and the many possibilities it has for future development.
The first topic of the meeting was to get an update on the flag pole project. Power will be trenched to the area for three lights that are going to be installed. Once they get the power installed the flag will be raised. “There will be some other work done around the base of it to dress it up,” said Crookston Park and Rec Director Scott Riopelle. “We are looking at future improvement around the flag pole as well.”
The second topic of the meeting was the future of the Sixth Street Landslide park, which offers countless possibilities. “We can look for future vision, not only our (the employees) vision, but of the Park Board and constituents too,” said Riopelle. “Whether it is sliding, putting in trails, benches and things like that, we are at the very beginning and it is endless on what we can do hear.”
Some of the first things the Park and Rec Department is looking at adding to the Sixth Street Landslide park will be the addition of access points and amenities. “Basically, it would be a natural walkway area along with a fishing pier down at the river so we would have a place for people to fish, looking at where we could enter to make it A.D.A. (American Disabilities Act) accessible, seeing what we can do to tie in some trails,” said Riopelle. “A lot of people don’t see most of the park and there is a lot to see and we want people to see this and we even talked about putting in a pedestrian or footbridge over the river to connect the town.”
Other things brought up by board members were bench swings, some kind of climbing activities, and yard games (bocci ball).
The Crookston Park and Rec Department helped get things ready for the Ox Cart Days Festival last week. “It wasn’t only us, we also get Public Works, Police and Fire guys as well,” said Riopelle. “We bring in the stage, the fencing, picnic tables, folding tables and we bring in the power and cords. Each year it is a puzzle and they did a great job with it.”
Crookston City Administrator, Shannon Stassen, said they would like the Park Board to lead a planning committee this winter to work on a master plan for Crookston parks and trails. “We want to be thinking about our facilities, the Crookston Sports Center, Highland Park, the trail amenities we have and all the other parks and natural play spaces we have,” said Stassen. “This would be a process that the Park Board would lead, but we would include groups like Bike Crookston, the DCDP (Downtown Crookston Development Project), UMC, the school district, the running club and all the user groups of the facilities. At the end we hope to have a master plan and when you seek funding you need a master plan and it will be very useful down the road.”
The view from the top of the Sixth Street Landslide park in Crookston
