The Crookston board of Parks and Recreations met on Monday afternoon inside the City Hall Conference Room. After the Call to Order, the board began the meeting by approving the minutes from their last meeting on June 20, where Mayor Dale Stainbrook asked if they had replaced the porta potties in the parks, in which Crookston Park and Rec Director Jake Solberg reported that they had replaced them with six new ones from M&K Porta Potties in Grand Forks and have them cleaned regularly until the end of September.
The board then began the Regular Agenda with a discussion about Crookston’s Nite to Unite that is happening on Tuesday, August 2, from 4:30 to 7:00 p.m. at UMC’s Campus Mall. Solberg reported that they would have a table at the event to pass out flyers about their activities and answer any parents’ questions about them, along with setting up an activity for children to play with at their table. The board then remembered that they had worked with the City Council members in the past by having their table be adjacent to theirs, and they believed that repeating this would help each other explain their programs and answer questions. “We are looking to put tables together at the event to let the community know that we are the city of Crookston,” said Solberg. “We’re here to serve, and if you have any questions about things outside of Parks & Recreations that are city related to talk about to a council member or myself, we’ll all be out there, united together.”
The board then began discussing hosting the American Legion Division II Sub State Baseball Tournament at Karn Field from Thursday, July 21, to possibly Sunday, July 24. Eight teams were expected to come for the tournament: Warroad, Roseau, Fosston, Stephen-Argyle, Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton, Twin Valley, Ada, and New York Mills. Solberg had met with Parks and Recs Supervisor Scott Butt, Interim City Administrator Charles “Corky” Reynolds, and the Baseball Association to discuss the various tasks they still needed to complete before the start of the tournament. These items included field maintenance, finding kids to track down foul balls, ticket takers, game announcers, and scoreboard takers. “Some of us in the Parks and Recs Department sat down with other members and the Baseball Association to go over and see what needed to be done. We’re looking for people to cover some shifts for ticket taker positions on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so they’ll do a two-game shift. Four spots are still open,” Solberg explained. “We also need ball shaggers. Every game needs kids who want to run and get balls that were hit outside the fence or complex, not in play. And if you have experience, and we’ve worked games before, we’ll need some help in the press box with scoreboard help, announcing, and keeping track in the books.” Vice President Bridgette DeLeon explained that they had emailed members of the American Legion team to see if they could get any volunteers to help them with the positions.
The board then continued its discussion from the last meeting on its piers on the Red Lake River. The river levels have dropped back down, and they have started putting in the docks this week, and weather depending, they will have them all in the water and usable by sometime next week.
Solberg then added a new item to the agenda about the lighting system that had been refurbished at Karn Field by Musco Lighting, saying they had some issues with the harnesses that they used to install the lights over the field. With this delay, the lights wouldn’t be fully complete by the tournament’s start later this week, but this wouldn’t be much of an issue in the long run.
Solberg added a final item to the Regular Agenda, reporting they had finished a new batting cage behind baseball diamonds five and six. The batting cage is 56 feet long, 14 feet wide, and 12 feet high.
The next Parks and Recs meeting will occur on Monday, August 15, at 4:45 p.m. inside the City Hall Conference Room.
