The Crookston Park Board was scheduled to meet Tuesday evening but didn’t have enough members for a quorum. However, Parks and Recreation Director Scott Riopelle did say that despite some bad timing with snowfalls happening right before the weekends that the outdoor rink at Alexander Park has been getting used. “The outdoor rinks are a challenge because it usually snows just before a weekend, so we get a foot of snow on top of stuff,” said Riopelle. “The outdoor rink has been being used pretty well over on Alexander and is looking good. The skating trail we moved out of Central Park over to Highland running over toward the splash pad, diamond one, and the Lions shelter. It’s nicely put out there but again was covered with about a foot of snow, so we have to get blow that off and redo it again. Hopefully, there are some people who will get out, use it, and have some fun.”
The Alexander Park outdoor rink was discussed as a trial rink to see if there would be enough interest to make additional outdoor rinks worthwhile in Crookston again. Riopelle said that right now he’s not sure if the city will add more because of the workload involved with installation and upkeep. “I don’t know if we’ll add many more at this point,” said Riopelle. “We’ll see down the road. They are quite costly to put in. We just have to make sure we have a lot of usage to make it worth our while because the guys put in a lot of time and effort starting from scratch to put them in. Having just a rink without boards is a lot easier to do. But again, it takes away from our time moving snow as well. We only have three people in that part of the workforce, and they’ve been inundated with snow, to say the least.”
The Northwest Regional Event Center Task Force was hoping to complete a feasibility study using a class at the University of Minnesota Crookston this spring, but that class has been canceled. Riopelle said they will look into finding another option for completing the study and will hold another meeting after other invested parties such as the Crookston School District can hold meetings discussing the brainstorming that has taken place. “We plan on still having some meetings about that turf and possible track,” said Riopelle. “We’re going to wait and let the school have some meetings first. We had hoped to have one of the classes at UMC look into doing a feasibility study but I guess that class doesn’t exist now, so we’ll look at other options. We will meet again later this spring. We don’t want to stop with it, we want to keep moving forward but we need other people to meet and bring their people up to speed with it.”
Riopelle also shared that the Crookston Sports Center will hold at least one wedding reception in 2020. According to Riopelle it won’t be the first wedding reception for the facility but is something the City of Crookston would like to get more of. “We’ve had one or two in the past, but we have a wedding reception this summer, possibly two, taking place at the Sports Center,” said Riopelle. “They will use the floor out there and usually bring in a DJ or a band. It’s not the ambiance that you would have at an establishment that deals with that, but it does work for people and we’re hoping to get more.”
The City of Crookston has also been approached about possibly hosting the Class E North Men’s State Softball Championships in August and should soon have an update as they work to iron out some details including the shorter fences in Crookston than the state tournament usually uses.
