The Red Lake River Corridor Enhancement Project has received a recommendation for funding on four projects from the Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission. The four projects include an RV park/campground in Crookston’s Central Park, Sportsman’s Park in Red Lake Falls, a park in Thief River Falls and trails in East Grand Forks. “It’s pretty exciting, and it has been a long process over several years with six cities, three counties, the watershed district, and many other partners,” said Crookston City Administrator Shannon Stassen. “It’s just a recommendation at this point, but historically the legislature has approved the recommendations that have come forth.”
About two-thirds of the recommended funding would be earmarked for Crookston. For each project, the cities must provide at least a 25% match of the approved state funding. Central Park would be in line for funding of about $1 million, with the City providing an additional $345,000. Currently, the campground has electric hookup only; the project would add water and sewer. Additionally, a bathhouse/storm shelter would be built that would have the ability to hold about 150 people during a storm.
Stassen said special recognition should go to Linda Kingery, Northwest Minnesota Sustainable Development Partnership, for being a driving force on the project and Kate Svitavsky, an intern for the Joint Powers Board, for coordinating the final application. “Linda has been a driving force behind this for a number of years, so this project doesn’t happen without her,” said Stassen. “Kate pulled together a lot of the information, making it look nice as a wordsmith and taking the project regarding the application to the next level.”
The recommendation will be reviewed during the next legislative session, and Stassen said he was unsure of the legislature’s schedule for when they would review the project. He added that on past projects, such as the river access points project coming in the summer of 2019, notification of the legislature’s decision has come in May.
