The Grand Marais Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is not offering handouts anymore, and it has some other governmental boards talking.
At the Tuesday, October 27, 2009 county board meeting, Cook County Schools Maintenance Director Mike Groth reported that the PUC would no longer be paying to water the district’s athletic fields. Groth watered the baseball field, multi-use field, and football field until August but then had to stop in order to keep his maintenance budget afloat through this fiscal year, which doesn’t end until next July.
Groth estimates that the school would have to pay $2,800 a year to keep the field adequately watered, at a cost of $5.25 per 1,000 gallons.
The county board had asked Groth to attend the meeting partly to discuss an agreement the school district made in November 2005 regarding the county’s investment of $22,000 in improvements to the multi-use field. That agreement states that ISD 166 would maintain the field, including mowing, fertilizing, aerating, seeding, and watering.
“It’s got to be in somebody’s budget,” said Commissioner Jim Johnson.
Groth reported that the Grand Marais Lions Club offered to help pay for watering. A Cook County News-
Herald
reader in the Twin Cities pledged to pay for watering the football field after reading a column by Mitch Dorr that talked about its bare dry spots. Others have offered to bring in trucks of water, Groth said, but he has a very good sprinkler system and wants to avoid any damage to the fields that might be caused by trucks.
Groth said the Cook County Community Center will continue to get the water it needs for its hockey and curling rinks at no cost this year, but the PUC will charge them for it next year. The Cook County Tennis Association was not so lucky. Vicepresident Rod Wannebo asked the PUC to waive a $1,000 hookup fee for installation of a water fountain but was denied, Groth said.
Commissioners Jan Hall and Fritz Sobanja talked about the county’s pledge to pay for one-third of the Grand Marais Pool’s operating debt this year (expected to be about $70,000) and next year (up to $75,000). The city, the school, and the county had an agreement to share costs when the pool was built in 1977, but the city eventually ended up funding the operating deficit as pool costs went up – until now.
County Commissioner Bob Fenwick recommended that the county board and school board talk before discussing their water needs with the PUC. If a new pool is built on Community Center grounds, he said, the county and the school would need to address how to access water for the pool, the athletic fields, and the ice rinks. One suggestion was to drill a well.
Commissioner Jim Johnson said, “Our ultimate goal is to preserve our investment.”
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