FAIRMONT– The Fairmont Park Board held its first meeting of the year on Tuesday. As it’s seasonal, the board had not met since October.

During the meeting, the board heard a proposal from Chuck Anderson, a member of the Early Risers Kiwanis. He said the Early Risers Kiwanis would like to put a shelter on the west side of Cedar Creek Park in Fairmont.

Anderson briefly spoke about some of the projects the group has done and while there’s many, he said they’re usually smaller. He said they’ve been discussing doing a larger, more permanent-type project over the past few years.

“We started looking around… and one of the things we’re amazed at is the number of people who play disc golf,” Anderson said.

He said that if a storm comes up in the summer on the west end of the park, it’s over half a mile to get to a shelter. Anderson also pointed out that not everyone parks at or starts walking at the main entrance to the park.

Terry Fraser, co-president of the Fairmont Disc Golf Club, was also present and spoke to the large number of people that attend disc golf tournaments at Cedar Creek Park.

“We hold a number or large tournaments ourselves but the big one is the Cedar Creek Classic, held in August. We have close to 200 players that play that through the weekend, plus guests, so it’s a draw of 250 to 300 people for the weekend,” Fraser said.

He said in past years the organization has gone through receipts in the community for that weekend and that over $10,000 was raised through Hy-Vee, gas stations, etc.

“It’s a huge draw. People from the cities come down… they come down and maybe stay in a hotel. A lot of people come from Iowa, South Dakota, Wisconsin… just to play our disc golf course,” Fraser said.

He said the shelter would be a good benefit not just to disc golfers, but for people who go to the park to walk their dog, snow shoe or snowmobile.

“I think it’s something that could be utilized year-round,” Fraser said.

Fraser said as a club they’ve been talking about doing a project at the park, but don’t have the funds to do so. He did say they could provide labor for projects.

Park Board Member Vicki Schulte shared concerns she had with the number of trees that are lacking now as a result of the expanded disc golf course.

“Now it’s not like a forest-y, private area. It’s like a course. The whole park is like one big course now and we don’t have a lot of forest area,” Schulte said.

Anderson said that while he doesn’t play disc golf, he feels that the disc golf course has opened up the use of the park to people who otherwise wouldn’t have necessarily gone to it.

Fraser noted that no live trees that were larger than a a few inches around were taken done in expanding the course.

Board Member Jane Kollofski asked whether Anderson will continue to work with Parks and Street Superintendent, Nick Lardy, on the project.

Anderson said he was interested in seeing what the Park Board thought about the project. He was asked about the cost and said that that Early Risers Kiwanis has gone out for and received bids that range from $15,000 to $26,000 for the shelter itself, but noted that does not include cement work.

“My guess is the total project will run in the $35,000 range, give or take,” Anderson said.

Lardy said they don’t have any money in the budget set aside for the project this year, but could include the potential for it in the 2024 budget.

Eric Johnson, another member of Early Risers Kiwanis, said they’re open to partnering with other interested groups on the shelter project.

Cindy Wolhuter also went before the board. She said that Grace Lutheran Church is planning a service day on Sunday, May 7 in which members will spend several hours picking up at three area parks: Sylvania, Ward and Gomsrud.

Wolhuter said that they have been in contact with Lardy and that the city will be picking up some of the bigger branches. She said they’re also partnering with the Fairmont Lakes Foundation, which will be picking up debris on the water.

“This is the first time our congregation is trying anything on this scale. We’re talking maybe 200 people… we’ll send people out for about three hours,” Wolhuter said.

She said congregation members are being asked to bring along their friends and neighbors to help with the project and that they will be wearing bright gold shirts.

Moving to other matters, Lardy detailed work his department has been doing to prepare the parks for the spring and summer.

He said over the winter months members of the department made some minor repairs to about 100 benches and 50 picnic tables. He said they’ve also removed about 350 trees that were infected with Emerald Ash Borer (EAB).

It was asked whether the city is going to be replacing those trees.

Lardy said there is no plan to replace all of them and that they will plant about 25 new trees, which has been done every year the past few years.

“The reason for that is that we don’t have the staff to take care of them. We put in 25 new trees a year and we can barely keep up taking care of them,” Lardy said.

He said that they can’t plant small trees because the deer eat them so they start by planting a 6 to 7 ft. tall tree.

Moving from the topic of trees, Lardy said they began installing docks this week. As there’s still a low temperature of 26 in the coming forecast, Lardy said they’re not going to turn on the water in park bathrooms quite yet. He also noted the official opening date for parks is not until May 10.

Lardy also said they’re going to get lawn mowers out soon, especially to do Jeffrey Kot Fields. He said that he’s lining up a contractor to do some fertilizing out there. While some grass died during a drought last year, Lardy said it’s been re-seeded and looks to be coming back pretty good and noted that the rain should help.

Board Member Monica Shelgren asked where pickle ball courts are located in Fairmont. Lardy said the east court at Veterans Park was converted into two pickle ball courts.

“We did come across a problem with the court surface there. It’s peeling off. We have big issues there that need to be addressed… you can take your foot and drag it and it peels off,” Lardy said.

Council liaison Randy Lubenow asked whether area high schools have been contacted about what company they use to resurface their tennis courts.

City Administrator Cathy Reynolds said that the bids the city has received in recent years were coming in higher than what was budgeted for. She said nothing is in the 2023 budget for the project.

Finally, Lardy shared that all eight of the temporary, seasonal positions in the parks department have already been filled.

In other news,

— Fairmont Community Education and Recreation Director, Stephanie Busiahn, spoke about some of the new programs CER will be offering this summer. Information about the programs can be found in the CER summer catalog which was mailed out to residents last week.