The stately elm trees that grace the Highway 61 boulevard in Grand Marais are slated to be cut down by MnDOT sometime early November. The Grand Marais city council will have a discussion about the trees at the council’s Wednesday, October 9 meeting. Concerned citizens should attend to make their wishes known about saving—or cutting—the trees. The council meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. and is held at Grand Marais City Hall. Photo courtesy of Mark Ellis
Increased attendance and small annual incremental increases in charges at the Grand Marais Recreation Park and Marina have led to another great year, said Dave Tersteeg, parks manager, at the park board’s October 1 meeting.
The park’s year-to-date revenue stands at $1,280,706, up 6.9 percent ($82,650) versus 2018, he said.
Even though September was a wet month, campers still came to the park, said Tersteeg, noting September 2019 brought in $213,068, which is 14 percent more than September 2018, or a gain of $26,216 over last year.
“This big gain can be attributed to 2019 September rates being charged at peak rates all month; 2018 September rates went to off-peak starting on the 16th,” Dave said to the park board.
One area that saw a drop in occupancy was the tent-sites, which were 62 percent last year and 59 percent this year. Again, Tersteeg said that drop-off might be attributed to the “generally cool, wet” 2019 season. RV site occupancy rose from 69 percent in 2018 to 71 percent in 2019.
While the rates at the park are the highest charged at an RV/tent park on Lake Superior, demand for the sites remains strong, Tersteeg told the board. Annual occupancy over the past five years has increased 14 percent, from 45 to 59 percent, with annual revenues rising 35 percent from $932,000 to $1.26 million over that same time.
Dave attributed that growth to strong RV and camping trends and added, “Our location is truly one of a kind. We have the waterfront and we are located next to the downtown area. We get a lot of great reviews and word of mouth advertising from our guests, which also helps.”
2020 rates
Why raise the rates each year?
“The number one use of our revenue is for property tax relief for the people of Grand Marais,” Dave told the board. “Each dollar we collect is one less dollar needed from the pockets of the taxpayers. The money we generate helps the city pay for special projects and helps us re-invest in our operation and building the vision of the Rec Park Master Plan.”
Two major capital projects loom on the horizon: The Highway 61 Community Connection corner known as “the landing” which will be built next year in accordance with the Highway 61 road work, and the park needs a new Bathhouse 3, which, with the design, engineering and build fees will cost about $1 million, Dave said.
“We have beautiful houses on Lake Superior that cost that much. How can a small, cement bathhouse cost a million to build?” asked city council liaison, Craig Schulte.
“Good question, Craig, but that’s what the new bathhouse in Two Harbors cost,” said Tersteeg.
While the board didn’t discuss raising rates for 2020, Dave gave them a list of things to ponder for upcoming meetings. Included was a look at where the park generates its income. Nine percent of total revenue comes from 13 nightly lakeside EWS (electric, water and sewer) sites; 23 percent of total revenue comes from 51 nightly EWS sites; 11 percent of total revenue comes from 31 prime monthly sites; and 17 percent of total revenue comes from 64 standard monthly sites.
“The more significant rate increases from 2016 to 2018 were on Lakeside EWS and prime monthly sites with a view,” he said. With nearly 300 total sites, which includes camping (tent) sites, Tersteeg noted that the park board has a lot of options to increase RV sites in the future.
Over the past five years, fees have increased one to three percent, which hasn’t had any adverse effect on occupancy. In fact, said Tersteeg, “We’ve seen steady gains in composite occupancy due to increased demand.”
“Lakeside sites are only 10 percent of our inventory, but they yield 25 percent of our revenue because they are always full. In fact, they are full tonight,” noted Tersteeg.
When lakeside sites become open, the park board has been converting them to nightly rentals.
New map for park considered
The way the camp sites are numbered has confused some of the new staff and some of the customers renting sites at the campground, Dave said.
“Currently we have east side sites that are straight numbered 1-100 and west side sites that run 1W-215W. This creates constant friction when we have technically two sites in the 1-100 range and the designation of the W is often overlooked.”
With that, Dave said a new map and site layout that would run sequential from east to west might work better. The change would also allow the staff to spruce up the look of the park’s signage and eliminate glitches at three sites numbered 45, 45W and 45WA.
Pak staff will work on the change this winter, he said, after the board agreed it looked like a logical solution to the problems now faced by staff and renters.
Bye-bye tower
Park signs directing walkers to the old tower on Sweetheart’s Bluff Nature Area have been removed, Tersteeg told the board, “Because the neighbor informed us that the tower was not on our property.”
Tersteeg said the tower would be taken off the park maps.
Barb Backlund has resigned from the park board due to personal reasons, Tersteeg told the board. The position will be advertised
Golf course report
The clubhouse is now closed at the Gunflint Hills golf course, and the staff and superintendent Paul Jones will begin to winterize the course and equipment.
Jones was in Grand Rapids checking out golf carts, said Tersteeg, so he couldn’t be in attendance for the meeting.
Although membership was flat between 2018 and 2019, revenues were up 24 percent over 2018. The course brought in $122,422 this year, about $23,528 more than last year.
“It looks like the revenue gains were from daily greens fees, which were 25 percent higher than last year,” Tersteeg said.
There were 2,385 rounds played this year versus 1,745 played last year, but Dave noted that the comparison might not be totally accurate because last year the numbers were pulled from sign-up sheets while this year they were taken from the point of sales number generated from the new check-out system put in the clubhouse this year.
Art work damaged
A vehicle damaged the canoe sculpture created and installed by Wayne Portraz in Boulder Park this last August. “It is repairable and will be reinstalled,” Dave said.
The large boulders that sit along the northern edge of the park will be moved to restrict people from driving on the beach, said Dave.
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