The Crookston Ways and Means Committee then met to discuss the Central Park Campground. Crookston City Administrator Corky Reynolds said they will have to redesign the campground’s development plan after they found the bids for the State Legislature Legacy grant came back much higher than the amount budgeted and was extended to June 30, 2024.
The proposed redesigned campground would have 15 sites, with seven 20/30-amp electrical outlets, one 50-amp electrical outlet, two tent area locations, and one women’s and men’s bathhouse.
Crookston Parks and Recs Director Jake Solberg and Scott Butt presented a new plan to the committee. They want to add a new campground bath house which would have a non-shelter building with four unisex and four handicapped bathrooms after the bids for adding a storm shelter to the bathhouse came back at a price far too high for them to cover and City Hall is a much bigger, and more structurally sound designated storm shelter that is close to the campground.
The original plan for the campground was to add more campsites to give it a total of 33 sites, with seven being paved drive-through sites and the other 26 being pull-in sites, with each site having a full hookup with electricity, water, and sewers, with six sites being handicap accessible. Their resized plan had the same ideas with the bathrooms, but they would remove the northeast corner of the campground to create a gravel path instead of a paved path which would only increase the campsite amount to 21 campsites with seven being drive-through sites and the other 14 being pull-in sites, with four sites being handicap accessible.
The estimated cost for Plan A would cost $325,000 for the bathhouse and $1,629,775 for adding the extra campsites for a total of $1,954,775.
Plan B would cost $1,092,275 for the 21 campsites, with the bathhouse costing the same for a total of $1,417,275 for which there was a difference of $537,500.
Both plans would increase their charges to $40 a night for Mondays to Thursdays, $45 from Fridays to Sundays, and $275 for a whole week, with an extra $5 per night with a pet, and $6 for a firewood bundle.
The council recommended going forward with the redesign of the bathhouse and requested the Park and Rec Department gather more information about the operational costs. “We have a very good idea of what the capital outlay will be to build either of these two, but the council wanted more specifics on how this will be operated. What will be the costs if we have rangers, camp posts, or city personnel, and what we can expect as income, which is important to be done,” Reynolds explained. “They directed us to go forward, gather more information regarding those specifics and come back to the council.”
The next City Council meeting will take place on Monday, November 7, at 7:00 p.m. inside the City Hall Council Chambers.
