In the wake of a decision to withdraw a controversial request for placement of a memorial flagpole in Harbor Park, Grand Marais city councilors were asked Nov. 10 to consider the creation of a public arts commission to oversee future requests.
“We left our job half-done when the park got built,” admitted Richard Olson, a member of the Harbor Park Design Committee. “There is a lack of details and yes, we dropped the ball. I guess we were all a little tired after nine years of effort.”
Olson was joined by fellow committee members Bette McDonnell and Jim Shinners in making his presentation to the council. The discussion was prompted by a request from a group of coffee klatchers and friends of the late Dick Joynes earlier this year to put up a memorial flagpole in the park. Although the city’s park board unanimously approved the idea, city councilors didn’t support the plan, citing aesthetics and a need to adhere to existing guidelines for the addition of memorials to the waterfront park. Those guidelines only allow small plaques on teak benches at a cost of $5,000, or a plaque on a wall bench for $750. To date, five teak benches and more than a dozen concrete bench plaques have been sold.
There were also some questions about the rules and regulations laid out by the state Department of Natural Resources in order to comply with the terms of a conservation easement and restrictions that were placed on the site when the city acquired it about 10 years ago.
Subsequently, spokesman Park Johnson told the News-
Herald
last week that the group
” withdrew its flagpole request and will instead consider other options to memorialize their friend.
Olson told council that the committee members agree that aesthetic guidelines should have been included in the park’s final plan, especially for artwork and memorials. “We didn’t want to make it morbid, like a cemetery— we wanted to keep it out of that realm,” Olson said of the memorials. The committee also had some recommendations for art, preferring to emphasize the park’s broad open expanse by limiting and focusing on the existing vertical elements, such as the Bear Tree, lighthouse and trees, rather than adding or allowing more. In fact, Olson recalled, “Not one of us on the committee was in favor of having a flagpole.”
McDonnell agreed that the committee could have done a more thorough job. “The park board does need some parameters. There is nothing to go by in black-and-white,” she said. “It’s not fair to them.”
Shinners said the next project for Harbor Park should be completion of a pavilion tent that would be used for festivals and other special occasions. “We need a shaded spot in the park, but the budget just didn’t allow us to do that,” he said.
The group proposed to council that a public arts commission be created to come up with better guidelines and eliminate confusion in the future when requests are made — not just in Harbor Park, but also on any public land. “We can work together to appoint an oversight committee,” explained Shinners. “It can be just three, four or five members, and they’d meet only when a proposal is made.”
Councilors seemed to be in agreement that the idea was a good one, and will place the item on a future agenda for more consideration.
In other business:
. B.M.A. Construction of Grand Marais, low bidder, was
awarded the contract to repair the storm-damaged roof and interior walls at the municipal swimming pool at a cost of $88,200; the city must pay a $10,000 deductible, but the remainder will be covered by insurance. Work entails tearing off all remaining roofing; installing new roof insulation and rubber roofing; and replacing a portion of the interior insulation and all of the paneling on the west wall, and a
portion of the east wall where water entered. It is estimated
the job will take at least a month to complete.
. Park Manager Dave Tersteeg said after the repair work is
done, the pool would be drained, cleaned and have annual
maintenance performed. The Minnesota Department of
Health will inspect the pool before its opening.
. Council approved a permit request from the Chamber
of Commerce to hold the Christmas parade Nov. 23. See
details in the ad on page A15.
. Council supported, on first reading, a planning commission
recommendation to rezone several properties on Seventh and Eighth avenues west from Commercial Industrial to Commercial-Residential Mixed Use. Councilors and planning commissioners said they believed the Mixed Use category was more appropriate for the area.
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