It has been years in the making and not without its share of controversy, but, at the Tuesday, Jan. 26, meeting of the Wright County Board, the commissioners approved the final passive land purchase for the Bertram Chain of Lakes Park.
The purchase was for Phase 10 of the acquisition process, which is the final 203 acres of passive land in the park. The county has been purchasing land at the park for nearly a decade, though for years the previous county board approved those purchases by votes of 3-2.
It was a long time coming, but Parks Administrator Marc Mattice said that the county has done its best to get grant funds to help with the costs.
"We got legacy funding of $2.8 million to acquire the final 203 acres that relate directly to the passive use park," Mattice said. "Phase 10 will be done in 2016 and will bring the total grant funds to the project to $11.4 million. All that is left of the project is 41 acres that are going to be used for the ball fields that will be part of the project."
The board also approved Phase 1 development of the park, which will include the development of a park access road, parking facilities, a beach access road, a restroom-changing facility at the public beach, sanitary sewer, a picnic shelter, hiking and skiing trails, two trail bridges and remodeling the interior of the rental chalet.
The Phase 1 development will include a $700,000 legacy grant, a $200,000 county match and match from the city of Monticello, and a $100,000 match from the YMCA of Minneapolis, which the land was purchased from.
The board approved acceptance of both of the grants and complimented Mattice and his staff for all the work that was put in on the project.
"I just want to commend Marc and his staff for this," Commissioner Mike Potter said. "They were awarded a little over $2.8 million (for the Phase 10 acquisition. That’s pretty decent."
Other items
In other business, the board:
■ Announced that the county has received a $200,000 grant award for the Connecting People to the Outdoors-Outdoor Recreation Program. No county dollars were required in the grant award.
Wright County will partner with Stearns County to contract for services of an outdoor recreation program-environmental educator rather than hiring an employee. Wright County will administer the program and it will be based out of Ney Park.
■ Approved seeking additional quotes for the cleanup of legacy property at Ney Park. The county budgeted $15,000 for the project, but two quotes received were double that amount. The board directed Mattice to seek out more quotes, but if none of them come in lower, the remaining portion will be taken out of the capital improvement fund,.
■ Referred to the personnel committee proposed revisions to the county’s personnel policy dealing with the personal appearance of employees.
■ Approved transferring a tax forfeit parcel to the city of Monticello. The parcel is a small median strip and the transfer was more of a bookkeeping cleanup to get the small parcel off the tax forfeit books.
■ Granted permission for Risk Manager Tim Dahl to attend the Public Risk Insurance Management Association National Conference June 5-8 in Georgia. The conference will focus on risk financing, employee benefits, enterprise risk management, leadership and administration, risk control, safety and workers compensation. Dahl will apply for a conference scholarship in an attempt to defray most of the costs related to the conference.
■ Acknowledged receipt of the Monday, Jan. 11, parks commission meeting minutes. No action items were discussed at the commission meeting, so no formal action was required other than to approve the minutes themselves.