Staff photo/Hal Kettunen The bathhouses at the Grand Marais Recreation Park campground, like this one, see a lot of use.
Grand Marais Recreation Area guests continue to bring in a significant portion of the city’s municipal pool revenue. This July, $5,500 of the $12,700 taken in at the pool – 43% of its total income — came from campers. “And that’s at a reduced rate,” said Park Manager Dave Tersteeg in an August 4, 2009 interview.
A study completed several years ago, Tersteeg said, showed that while an average of only 11% of campground guests use the pool, 50% of pool users are campground guests.
At the park board’s August 4 meeting, Head Lifeguard Charles Christiansen reported that July’s cash register receipts were up $342 over last July, despite the fact that nine seasonal memberships up for renewal were not renewed. Last year, campers were charged only $2.00 a ticket, but this year, they are being charged $3.00 – a difference that Christiansen said is making up for the memberships that were not renewed.
After a review of pool usage, the board voted to reduce hours starting in the fall, but the pool will not be closed on Sundays as discussed previously. Sundays through Thursdays, the pool will close at 7:00 p.m. in slow months and at 8:00 p.m. during the summer. The pool will remain open until 9:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Morning adult swim hours will be reduced by half an hour.
Sundays have been bringing in an average of 50 swimmers during a sixhour shift, Christiansen said. The board approved reducing staff to one instead of two on Sundays, although others workers will be called in if the pool gets busy.
Golf course
While July’s cold temperatures drew more swimmers to the pool, it seemed to keep golfers away from Gunflint Hills Golf Course. ThisJuly’s revenue was down 18% from last year, bringing in $24,731 to last July’s $30,266. The reduction “was mostly weather-related, I’d say,” according to golf course manager Mike Kunshier.
Kunshier said he consulted with a representative from the Northeast Entrepreneur Fund, a nonprofit community development financial institution, on how to increase revenue. Several of the suggestions were already being implemented, including tournaments, website marketing, and golf deals in hotel packages. The consultant is investigating how Gunflint Hills could attract more female golfers, Kunshier said.
Campers request more reservations
Three women representing the “Johnson” family that brings a group of 50 to the park every August asked the park board to consider revoking a new rule that only three campsites can be reserved in one phone call for Fisherman’s Picnic weekend.
The family has been coming here for 15 years, many with RVs that reduce the group’s use of the bathhouses, said April Johnson. During softball games, the bathhouses often run out of toilet paper and soap, she said, but those in her group who have RVs let the others use their bathrooms during these times. They prefer to reserve spaces together to increase the safety of their children who play together among the campsites. This year, Johnson called on January 2, the first day 2009 reservations could be made, and had to wait half an hour to get through.
Office manager Samantha Williams said she gets requests each year from six to eight groups that want to book sites for Fisherman’s Picnic. This year, the entire campground was booked in two and a half hours.
Johnson argued that her group stays much longer than just the weekend, bringing in additional revenue to many local businesses as well as the rec park.
The park board decided to consider the matter and discuss it again at its next meeting Tuesday, September 1. Tersteeg said he would find out what other campgrounds do about group reservations during big events.
Capital improvement priorities
In response to a city council request, Tersteeg made a list of priorities for capital improvements over $25,000 that would be needed in the next 10 years. Theyinclude new blacktop on park roads, campsite upgrades with more full-service sites, a new rec park/marina office, replacement of two bathhouses, marina improvements, and replacement of the ¾-ton plow truck.
Tersteeg reported that he and city representatives had met with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to talk about moving forward with Safe Harbor and Marina designation. He noted that the designation would require a minimum of 100 slips in the harbor and said that a new break wall could not be located in front of the private properties just east of the campground.
Park board member Paul Anderson recommended that a large-boat lift be put on the list of capital improvement priorities to allow storage of boats too large to transport on roads.
The new DNR docks for the southeast corner of the campground have been ordered, Tersteeg said, and improvements to the boat ramp are still on the list of priorities.
Recent capital improvements have included $500,000 for a new bathhouse and $50,000 for new finger docks and marina upgrades.
Tersteeg reported on two grants that could help fund a solar water heating system for one of the park’s bathhouses. One is a Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation grant that the Cook County Local Energy Project (CCLEP) applied for on behalf of the rec park. The $15,000 system might cost the city only $1,750 and would pay for itself in fuel savings within five years, Tersteeg said. After that, the system would provide free hot water (except during peak usage or bad weather) for up to 30 years with minimal maintenance.
Campground full
The campground had been full since the Fourth of July, Williams reported, and Tersteeg said park revenue was up 9% over 2008. Themarina, with its additional finger docks, has been bringing in a significant amount of extra revenue as well, Tersteeg said.
While the park provided porta-potties for the Fisherman’s Picnic softball tournament, Tersteeg said, they were not enough and the bathhouses did not stay stocked over the weekend. Tournaments such as this put a “big strain” on the park, Tersteeg said, and supervision by the sponsor, in this case, the Lions Club, would be better.
Tersteeg also reported that several RVs that could not be accommodated at the park were sent to the courthouse parking lot west of Fifth Avenue West, but Fisherman’s Picnic vendors had put a sign on the lot saying, “Vendors Only.”
1% sales tax
City councilor/park board member Bill Lenz reported that the 1% sales tax committee has been discussing the possibility of including a community center in the list of projects to be included in the 1% sales tax referendum this fall. The community center could include a large gymnasium, an aquatic center, a fitness center, and a commercial kitchen.
Many of the amenities recommended by consultant Mike Fischer are redundant, Lenz said, and he believes those redundancies would put some businesses out of business.
Lenz also said he believes that the facility’s projected revenue is “optimistic” and that the projected subsidies will “kill the project.”
Seven projects have been proposed at a cost of $29 million, Lenz said, and the tax would generate up to $20 million. The committee continues to meet to discuss which projects to include in the referendum.
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