The Crookston Park Board met Monday night and after approving their September meeting minute they passed a resolution approving a $29,000 equipment purchase for Alexander Park, the last of the City of Crookston’s parks to get updated playground equipment. The City of Crookston received over $15,000 in savings through their purchase group and fall sales. The playground equipment purchase was moved up a year because there wasn’t a contractor to complete the Highland Tennis Court resurfacing scheduled for this year according to Parks & Recreation Director Scott Riopelle. “We had some funding available in our budget from this year due to the fact we did not resurface our tennis courts which we’ll try to do next year instead,” said Riopelle. “We just got too late with it and we have to have adequate weather with that surfacing to make sure it adheres correctly. We had a budget of approximately $30,000 we could use and that’s what we were budget next year for Alexander Park. We were able to pick some fall sale prices and bought through our northwest buyer’s group which saved us some money. We got some very nice pieces of equipment for a lot less than what we could’ve had to pay for it.”
Riopelle also provided an update on the outdoor rink at Alexander Park telling the board the warming house is in place and boards should go up within about a week. “The outdoor rink we talked about putting in there will take place,” said Riopelle. “We have to put up boards yet, but we do have a warming house that has been moved over and had an electrician come in and do some underground power okayed for Otter Tail [Power Company]. We do have the power installed now and are set to go. We have fall cleanup this week so our people are out helping with that, but we should be putting in boards shortly. We’ll just wait for cold weather to hit this winter and try to get some ice in.”
Several updates were also given including that the pool will having swim lessons in November. They will also get a quote on new water fountains in November, and recently underwent their annual inspection by the Department of Health and are not anticipating any suggested corrective actions on the final report. Hoops on Halloween is also coming up on November 3 and more than 100 teams are expected to register. Crookston also hosted ‘The Big One Art & Craft Show’ this past Friday and Saturday at the sports center. The event is contracted through 2021, and Riopelle said both the vendors and organizers seemed pleased with a steady crowd throughout the event. “Friday, Saturday we had ‘The Big One’ craft show,” said Riopelle. “A lot of different people from all over came in for it. The parking lot was full many times. People were steady coming, you do have some lulls, but overall the people putting it on and the vendors were very happy with the attendance this year. I think they came out pretty good which is what we want them to do. And it’s good for the community because they are not only coming in for the show, people are stopping at convenience stores, restaurants and spending dollars there as well.”
FACILITIES BRAINSTORMING SESSION
The Park Board will be hosting a Facilities Brainstorming Session Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. at the Bede Ballroom at the University of Minnesota Crookston. The brainstorming is open for all members of the community to participate and Riopelle said they’d like people to bring ideas regarding parks, trails & facilities. “What we would like to do is have people bring ideas on what we can do to enhance existing parks, trails, and facilities such as the sports center and pool,” said Riopelle. “These are big items we’d like to see like building on, for instance, putting turf on a baseball field. Not like a hand railing or something like that needing to be placed somewhere. We are looking for big items that could help us down the road and help with our programming after that with having more uses in those parks or facilities.”
