The Crookston Park Board met on Monday, heard multiple presentations from local organizations, continued reviewing the pool feasibility study, and received information about a fitness court idea.
CYBA FACILITY PRESENTATION
Members of the Crookston Youth Basketball Association (CYBA) attended the meeting and presented to the park board about their lack of practice facilities. CYBA President Kristi Griffin told the board that 118 kids signed up for CYBA this season, which continues to increase each year. Griffin’s concerns are the closure of Washington Elementary, the increased cost of renting facilities at the University of Minnesota Crookston, and the decreased availability of the Crookston High School gymnasium; they currently have only Highland Elementary’s and Cathedral School’s gymnasiums for practice areas.
Griffin and the CYBA have identified a potential solution of building their own facility, but they wanted to come before the park board to discuss potential locations for the facility and get advice on possible fundraising or grant opportunities, as well as getting input on any potential locations for a facility, including next to the Crookston Sports Center. Griffin was adamant that they are in the early stages of planning and are not making any final decisions on locations or designs anytime soon. “Well, CYBA right now has about 118 kids in our program, and we are short practice space. So, really, we just came tonight to share our concerns with Park and Recreation and see what the next process would be to maybe find more practice locations for us.”
GET KIDS OUTDOORS PRESENTATION
Fred Parnow of Get Kids Outdoors was the next presenter, proposing the installation of a permanent dock at the ponds between Eickhof Boulevard and Barrette Street. He noted that many kids and families fish from those ponds, and there is no permanent dock at either pond. Parnow has spoken with the current landowner and received permission to install a dock, but he wanted to see if the park board had any suggestions to add to his concept. Butt mentioned that they have the old dock from Central Park that could be installed for the time being, but the board supported Parnow’s idea to create a safe area for people to fish in those ponds.
Butt appreciated the CYBA and Parnow for coming to the board meeting to present their ideas and receive feedback from the board, as there aren’t many groups that come to the board with ideas like this to support growth in youth activities in Crookston. “Fred’s got a lot of great ideas. The CYBA people had some really great ideas. So, the fact that we can look at these things and say, ‘How can we get everybody together and work together?’ is really fun and exciting. It makes your day go really fast when you start having to look at all these different things. And having Travis Oliver here talking about what he thinks we could do from a building standpoint and this type of stuff is really exciting.”
POOL STUDY REVIEW
The board continued discussions from the September 14 meeting, including a review of the pool feasibility study conducted earlier this year. During those discussions, it was determined that Butt would work with Interim City Administrator Darin Selzler to identify the repairs that would be considered top priorities and begin determining which funding sources are available for this project. Overall, the board agreed that the best course of action is to identify available grants that could reduce the amount of funding the city would need to bond for the necessary pool repairs.
Butt was pleased with the discussion and will work with Community Development Director Taylor Wyum to identify applicable grants; in the meantime, he will work to identify what projects could be addressed first that could be funded through budgeted areas like maintenance. “I think that’s where we have to start is what can we do from a maintenance standpoint, then what can we do from a capital improvement standpoint, and then let’s go out and find grants so that we can limit what we would be looking to bond for down in the future. If we can reduce that bond number more and more every year, I think that’s a better solution as to how we can keep our pool running and keep it up and and make it as nice as we possibly can.”
FITNESS COURT INFORMATION
The final agenda item was a discussion of a proposed fitness court at one of the city’s parks or the old skatepark. Butt told the board he had been contacted by a company that specializes in fitness courts, outdoor workout facilities that typically include light cardio equipment and space for exercise. Butt brought the idea to the board to gauge interest in pursuing this project. The board agreed that, given the current projects Parks and Rec is already working on, including the pool, and the winter climate making the fitness courts unusable for a fair amount of time each year, the timing is not right for this project at this time. Butt agreed; he likes the idea and would consider it again in the future. “I thought the board really looked at it, and they looked at it realistically. I thought hey, this is a great idea. It’s just right now isn’t the time for us, as we’re looking at some of these other things that really need to take priority. And the fact that they were able to look at it and say, okay, this is what we want our priorities to be, I think says a lot about how they looked at things from a really mature standpoint and said, what is best for the community of Crookston.”
The next regular Crookston Park Board meeting is scheduled for Monday, December 14, at 4:30 p.m. in the conference room at City Hall.
