Council Approves Five-Year, $1.3 Million Parks Maintenance Plan

On Monday night, the Inver Grove Heights City Council approved a five-year, $1.3 million funding plan for the maintenance of the city's aging parks system.

The city has 25 parks and over $9.8 million in park assets and improvements, including playgrounds, basketball courts, trails, ice rinks and other amenities. But Inver Grove Heights, hit by budget cuts, has for years deferred park maintenance, and many of the city's parks facilities will soon need repair work or replacement, according to Inver Grove Heights Parks and Recreation Director Eric Carlson.

Earlier this year, for the city's park system.

Under Carlson's proposal—presented in June—the city would have siphoned $3 million from the Host Communities Fund, $4.28 million from the general fund and $1.15 million from the capital facilities fund over the next two decades for the city’s park maintenance fund.

, and Carlson went back to the drawing board. The new plan, though smaller in scope, will allow the city address to deal with its most pressing park maintenance concerns, Carlson said.

Under the new plan, approved by a 4-1 vote at the council meeting on Monday night, the city will transfer a total of $833,000 over the next five years from the general fund, $125,000 from the Host Communities Fund and $125,000 from its capital facilities fund to parks maintenance. Roughly $200,000 generated by the sale of Cameron Park to Cameron's Warehouse Liquors will round out the city's contribution to the maintenance fund.

Councilor Rosemary Piekarski Krech cast the lone dissenting vote against the plan. Earlier this year, Piekarski Krech spoke out against the cost of park maintenance, saying that the city needs to balance its spending between the park system and other vital city services.

While the $1.3 million plan represents a significant improvement in the level of park maintenance funding, it won't be enough to address every problem, Carlson said. For that reason, the city plans to work with community residents to prioritize park maintenance needs.

Early next year, Carlson said, the city's Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission will create a task force that will be responsible for gathering input from the public regarding the needs of the city's park system. Feedback the task force receives through a series of planned public meetings will help the city identify top concerns when it comes to the replacement and improvement of park facilities, Carlson said.

"If you have one dollar, but you have two dollars of needs, you have to prioritize," Carlson said. “In these economic times, we have to talk about the true importance and priorities of [park maintenance].”