The Grand Marais Park Board met for its first meeting of the new year on Thursday, January 5 and began planning for the summer to come.
Park manager Dave Tersteeg discussed the 2009 Goals and Policies Master Plan with the park board, asking, “How do we mesh our master plan with the current visioning and comprehensive planning?”
Part of the reason for improving the blueprint is it is a requirement to help score higher on the park’s application for the Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails (GMRPT) designation. Last spring the park submitted an initial application that scored high for the likelihood of regionally significant designation. As Tersteeg noted, “Parks and trails designated regionally significant are eligible for Legacy tax money. Currently, the 2009 park master plan only meets about half of the requirements of the GMRPT,” he said.
With that in mind, the board spent one hour looking at the map of the park, and talked about the possible changes to the harbor, including where (and if) the time comes to move the Cook County Historical Society’s display of the old time replica fish house and the Neegee, the fishing boat that now sits on the western edge of the marina. Any such move would include the historical society, said Tersteeg. Also discussed was possibly adding some more slips for boats, how to offer a way for boat owners to pay for fuel at the harbor rather than walking up to the office, and even installing a Laundromat at the harbor for the vessel owner who docks and expects such service.
“I don’t know about adding a Laundromat,” said Sally Berg. “My parents owned a trailer park, and they put in a laundry that seemed to take up much of their time. Maybe we could put in a washer and dryer or two, but I’m not in favor of a Laundromat because they involve too much work to maintain.” Tersteeg agreed and said that if a boater asks, they are taken to a Laundromat. He also said the owners of the local Laundromats had, in the past, been firmly against the idea of a city-owned business competing against a private business.
Governor Mark Dayton included $900,000 in his most recent bonding bill for improvements to the Lake Superior public water access that is located on the southwestern edge of the park, said Tersteeg. Upgrades will include rebuilding the small inner break wall and extending the dock for bigger boats to land or depart from, as well as improve public parking and the nearby picnic site. Tersteeg noted that the legislators are in the early stages of their 2017 session, and the governor’s bonding bill isn’t the final word on how much money—if any—gets appropriated for 2017.
Berg, Kaye Tavernier, Dave Mills, Jennifer Stolz and Barb Backlund all weighed in on possible options for the park land the softball ball field now sits on. When the softball field is moved is up in the air until a new site for it can be found. Mills hoped the ball field space would someday be used for trailers because of the increased income the rentals would bring to the city. Then the board talked about improving the park’s roads, upgrading the electrical hook-ups for trailers, and making improvements or replacements of bathhouses. Tersteeg noted bathhouse Number 2 was built in 1992 and needed considerable work.
The park board will carry on discussions about what changes they would like to see in the park at future meetings, and special meetings will be called if need be. The public will be invited to comment on any proposed changes to the park, said Tersteeg.
The first three days of the new year have been excellent for the park, Tersteeg said.
All told, Dave and his two staff members took 383 reservations by the end of the first day (January 3). “That was up slightly from last year’s total of 378. I thought we would be up more because we were so busy, but I guess three people can only get so much done in one day,” he said.
The pace slowed a little bit in the office over the next two days. By Thursday, said Tersteeg, “We had made 713 reservations, up about 2.5 percent from the first three days of 2016.”
As usual, said Tersteeg, “Several requests came from people who want us to change our reservation policy to allow us to book one year ahead. Logistically, this is challenging for us. The state has been doing this for the past year. I’m not sure how well it has worked. For us, it presents challenges because we don’t set our rates one year ahead. We also don’t have the reservation management software to offer this service. This is something we could look at providing in the future if the board wants me to look into it, but we can’t offer this service this year.”
“We are only taking reservations by phone or walk-in this first week,” said Tersteeg. “Next week the online request system will be activated.”
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