The Crookston Parks & Recreation Board met on Monday night inside the City Hall Council Chambers. The meeting began with the approval of the August 4 meeting minutes, which the board approved unanimously.
There were two items on the regular agenda, discussion on city outdoor rinks and the Swimming Pool High Diving Board. The board had planned on discussing the outdoor rinks at the previous meeting before it was canceled due to a lack of quorum.
The department is trying to decide how many outdoor rinks the city should have this upcoming year and where they should be located.
Crookston Parks & Recreation Director Jake Solberg told the board his idea is to have a survey with the public to get them involved with helping make the decision. Solberg discussed more of what will be in the survey. “We’re looking for where people would like to see more outdoor rinks placed for skating and taking their family out to have some fun,” said Solberg. “We’re also interested in seeing how old the people taking this survey are and how many days a week they’re planning on using the rinks. With that, we’re also curious how many rinks people would want. We have enough supplies for two rinks, but if people wanted another one for just skating, we could use some snowbanks and put another one in as well.”
The goal is to have the survey coming out within the next week. You’ll be able to find a link to the survey once it is released on KROX, The Crookston Times, and the Crookston Parks & Recreation Facebook Page. No action was needed from the board as Solberg was updating them on the next steps in the process.
The board then discussed the swimming pool diving board and potential options to replace or update it. In August, there was an accident with a 6-year-old that fell off the diving board onto the cement.
The 6-year-old was okay, but Solberg said they’re still looking for the safest possible option, whatever it may be. “Some of the ideas are to keep the high board and just find a different way to make it safer,” said Solberg. “We could also remove the high board and put in something else like a water slide or something that could replace it. There will still be the regular diving board for the kids to jump off, so looking into something else is possible. We want the safest solution for our kids and our community.”
Solberg says there isn’t a timeline for when a decision will be made, as he is still looking at the budget and what the different options would cost. The update to the board from Solberg was informational, and no action was needed.
After the meeting ended, Solberg also provided an update on the Crookston Sports Center, as it has been having issues keeping the ice on the blue rink frozen for a little over a week now. Solberg says the problems have been fixed, and the Sports Center is back to regular hours and fully operating and he isn’t anticipating any further issues.
The next Parks & Recreation board meeting will take place on Monday, November 15.
