Inver Grove Heights May Implement Fees For Frisbee Golf Course

The days of free Frisbee golf at may be numbered, if the Inver Grove Heights City Council approves the implementation of a new fee system for the facility.

At its work session last week, the council discussed whether the city should contract with Fairway Flyerz Discs, Inc. to operate a mobile sales unit at the course and sell daily and annual passes to Frisbee golfers. The course is currently free for the public, although city officials last year began selling annual passes on a limited basis to the Inver Grove Heights course and the course at Kaposia Park in a partnership with the city of South Saint Paul.

Under the proposal, a percentage of all the revenue generated by Fairway Flyerz through the sale of passes, Frisbee golf equipment and concessions would be returned to the city, according to Inver Grove Heights Recreation Superintendent Tracy Petersen. At this point, city officials haven’t how large a cut the city would take if the plan were approved, Petersen said. However, the city would likely charge $30 for an annual pass and $3-$5 for a daily pass to the 18-hole course. Students 21 years old and younger would be allowed free admission to the course.

The fees could generate as much as $6,000 a season for city coffers, Petersen said. Some of that money, she added, would be set aside in a separate fund and used to pay for improvements to the course — including new benches, garbage cans and baskets. If approved, the “pay-to-play” system could go into place as early as May 1, Petersen said. Before the fee system is implemented, however, the Inver Grove Heights council must vote to approve it.

 The proposal garnered preliminary support during the work session from at least two Inver Grove Heights City Councilors: Vance Grannis and Dennis Madden.

“I think it’s a good idea in these tough budgetary times to raise some money to support [the Frisbee golf course],” Grannis said. Another councilor, Rosemary Piekarski Krech, wondered aloud whether the potential fees would drive away users.

Petersen acknowledged after the meeting that a limited number of people might stop using the park, but said that imposing the fees would allow the Frisbee golf course to become “self-sustaining.” Having Fairway Flyerz present on the course, Petersen added, may also serve as a deterrence for the vandals that occasionally strike both North and South Valley Parks.

Currently, the city has no way to track the number of visitors using the Frisbee golf course. However, Petersen estimated that as many as 5,000 people used the course last year.

Under the proposed system, players who purchased the annual pass would also receive free access to the Kaposia Park Frisbee golf course in South St. Paul, which instituted its own pay-to-play fee system last year.

Clarification: Although the North and South Valley Parks Frisbee golf course is a free facility, city officials began selling annual passes for the course on a limited basis in 2010 in conjunction with South St. Paul, which operates a pay-to-play Frisbee golf course at Kaposia Park.