Park Board approves Stone Harbor North Shore Water Festival

Jack Stone, the owner of Stone Harbor Wilderness Supply, appeared (remotely) before the Grand Marais Park Board with a request to once again host the North Shore Water Festival.

The Zoom meeting was held Tuesday, March 2.

The North Shore Water Festival is held in the Grand Marais Harbor near the Lake Superior Trading Post. The event features kayaks and stand-up paddleboards for the public to try once they have received some training and then are supervised.

Stone came with a COVID-19 preparedness plan and answered questions from the park board. When the questions were answered, the park board unanimously approved the festival, which will be held July 16-18.

With no movement on opening the border, the park board approved a $500 discount for Canadians who have trailers in the park. Should the border open, the discount will cease to apply. The board gave Canadians who have trailers onsite the same discount last year.

Gunflint Hill golf rates will remain largely unchanged from last summer. Memberships will go up three percent and the City of Grand Marais residents will once again receive a discount of 15 percent off when they play.

Parks Director Dave Tersteeg talked about the coming Highway 61 summer construction season. He noted that contractors would be back in town in May. The work in town will go from 8th Avenue West to the stoplights at Broadway Avenue, with Highway 61 closed from 3rd Avenue West to Broadway from mid-May to early August.

“In an attempt to alleviate some of the displaced parking along the highway, we will be making our municipal parking lot across the street from the Park Office (the parking site of the old pool building) available for public parking,” Tersteeg said. He noted that the North House Folk School has already told their students that parking will be at the old pool site and it’s close to the North House campus.

Work on the Parkside public water access project will start this spring. Tersteeg said the break wall reconstruction (the rock pile break wall by the dog pound) would be done by Veit and Company, Inc. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) awarded the contract. Veit is the same company that the city of Grand Marais hired to demolish the public work garages.

Tersteeg said he is anticipating needing seasonal positions (custodian, maintenance worker and front desk) filled at the campground with the tourist season not far off. Starting pay is $14.60 per hour and scheduling is flexible, including nights and weekends. Look for job openings to be posted online through the parks’ website.