The warm Cook County spring was good news for Gunflint Hills Golf Course. May revenues were $5,444, up from $2,489 last May. By the first of June 2010 revenues were $44,546, up from $31,218 at the same time last year.
The course itself was experiencing “July conditions,” Golf Course Manager Mike Kunshier told the Grand Marais Park Board on Tuesday, June 1.
Memberships were at 97 on the first of June, and Kunshier expected another half dozen. Taking advantage of discounted rates, 19 people purchased first-time regular memberships, and nine purchased underage 30 memberships.
Dragon Boat Festival course
Park Manager Dave Tersteeg reported that after discussing the Dragon Boat racecourse with event organizers, he was recommending that the course stay where it has been, with an east-west orientation. He had pursued the possibility of changing the course to a north-south orientation so that large boats and city moorings would not have to be moved, but in the end, he didn’t think the races should follow the navigational channel leading into the harbor.
North House Executive Director Greg Wright told the park board that race organizers want to keep the dragon boats closer to shore for the safety of the boaters. He said they also prefer the east-west orientation because it’s better for crowds to view the races. North House Folk School, WTIP Radio, and the North Shore Health Care Foundation are all beneficiaries of the dragon boat races.
Tersteeg estimated that moving boats, sinking buoys, setting up docks and putting everything back again would take 12 staff hours and cost $560 in labor. Volunteers could save $160 of that cost, he said. It’s a public event, said Walt Mianowski, and businesses benefit from it. Incurring staff time and cost is not a problem, he said.
Bill Lenz suggested tracking costs for the Dragon Boat Festival this year. Theboard unanimously passed a motion to not charge the festival but rather to consider park board costs a contribution to the event this year.
The board discussed the cost to the park for various public events and whether a blanket policy should be written to address how these will be handled. “Every one of these events brings people into the park,” Paul Anderson said.
“Not only that,” Walt Mianowski said, “into the town.”
The board decided to discuss such a policy further next year.
Big boat in marina
Tersteeg reported that a 50-foot powerboat would be using one of the city’s moorings. It will be the biggest boat on the buoys “by far,” he said.
“It’s going to be a good year in the marina,” Tersteeg said. “The word is spreading that we can get big boats in.”
Event application and fee
The board discussed the new $25 fee that is required with applications for special events on city park property. Some events require more staff time to set up, such as the WTIP Radio fall music festival at the sliding hill. The mid-summer Grand Marais Art Colony art fair in downtown Grand Marais requires no setup by park staff, although they clean up after the event.
Tersteeg asked the park board how big an event needed to be before an application and fee would be required. Todd Miller said he would like to see all user groups fill out an application form so they could track the kind of special events that take place on park property. Bill Lenz suggested charging the fee only if staff time were needed. Paul Anderson suggested that they waive the fee this first year but have all users submit an application so they can analyze park use after the summer season is over.
The $25 application fee will not be implemented this year, and none of the special events will be charged for park staff time. The board will review the policies after the summer season is over.
Photovoltaic solar panels
The city will not hear until late August or early September whether it will be awarded a grant for electricity generating solar panels that the Cook County Local Energy Project applied for on its behalf.
Recreation Area Manager Dave Tersteeg told the park board the location for the panels has not been determined. The golf course had been suggested, but the grant has a higher likelihood of being awarded the more visible the panels would be.
Tersteeg said he believes the park board would be “the first line of review” for the design of the panels. At a previous meeting, board members had expressed concern that a project to be implemented on property under the park board’s purview had been proposed (by the Cook County Local Energy Project) and approved (by the city council) without the park board even being notified. If a project concerns the park board, Chair Walt Mianowski said, they should be involved rather than finding out about it in the newspaper.
Pool numbers up
May’s income was up at the pool by $1,500, Head Lifeguard Charles Christiansen reported. A total of $19,124 has been generated so far this year, up 11% over last year’s income. Thefirst fivemonths of 2010 brought 7,741 people, 5% over last year’s numbers.
Sixteen individuals and seven families took advantage of a membership sale this spring.
Summer pool hours started June 5. Adult swim is 7:00-11:00 a.m. Monday through Friday, and open swim starts at noon every day. The pool is open until 8:00 Sunday through Thursday and until 9:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Two Cook County Incredible Exchange students will be helping out at the pool over the summer.
In exchange for a free swim day for its students, Great Expectations charter school is creating a mural that will be mounted by the front door of the pool. Themural will say “Grand Marais Pool” on it and will be created by the students, Christiansen said. The design will be a mystery until the mural is mounted, because Christiansen left the rest up to them.
Park improvements
The road from 8th Avenue West to the bathhouse across from the ball field will be paved in the first couple weeks of June, Tersteeg said. The rest of the road will not be done yet because more engineering work is needed before utilities can be installed underneath it. The city council approved up to $35,000 for paving this summer, and an additional $10,000 can be spent on working with an engineer to plan site upgrades.
“The community garden is coming right along,” Tersteeg said. Five plots have been reserved by gardeners (four of them park guests), and two more are still available.
Todd Miller suggested that the park hold a lottery if the garden has more requests than plots in future summers.
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