I'll let them know. Okay. Thank you. Alright. You ready? Mhmm. Ready? Okay. We'll go ahead and call this meeting to order, and welcome to our guests today. We'll do a quick roll call. Crystal Jamerson here. Mike Reeder. Steven Aistro. Lisa Kildee. Ryan Weinserl. Mark Sloan. From the staff side, Becky Tighe, deputy clerk. Chad Olsen. Alright. Thanks, everyone. And next item in the agenda is the agenda approval. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. And a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Alright. Motion passes. Go on to the next item on the agenda,
the approval of the minutes from the 03/04/2026 planning commission meeting. So moved. Alright. We have a motion. Is there a second? Second. And a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Alright. Motion passes. Onto the next item on our agenda is the Clay County Heartland Trail Planning. Dan is here from Metro COG presenting. Does Becky, do we have anything from the city perspective first, or We do not. Okay. Welcome, Dan. Thanks for coming back to see us. Alright. Well, thank you. And it looks like you're getting the slides pulled up.
I, got a email from Peyton a few weeks ago asking if I could do a little update on the Heartland Trail planning in Clay County. So, it like you guys are interested in that. I'm not sure when last time was I presented, maybe about a year, year and a half ago, perhaps. So, yeah. I'll just wait for the slides to get up there. Oops. Sorry. That's okay. No worries. Reminds me of my computer. I'm just, like, don't use this computer a lot. So sorry. Just looking to get there it is. Alright. Yeah. So I'll just I know a lot of you have heard about the Heartland Trail,
but maybe not all of you have. So I'll do my first few slides of introduction here of the Heartland Trail. And I guess even myself, I'm with, Dan Farnsworth from the Fargo Moorhead Metro Council of Governments. We are the planning organization metropolitan training planning organization for the Fargo Moorhead area. The Heartland Trail is a, currently is a 49 mile paved shared use path, which travels from Park Rapids to Cass Lake, Minnesota. It was one of the first, rails to trails, projects in the country, and it was initially built in 1976, at least a portion from Park Rapids to Walker.
In 2006 the state of Minnesota authorized the extension of the Heartland Trail from Park Rapids to Moorhead. So they authorized it as a future state trail didn't provide any funding for it but at least it's authorized. That's one step. That's the first step. So you can see in that picture there, that lady, crossing by the lake there that's part of the Heartland Trail as it is today. Next slide. Sorry. And then a little more information on the Heartland Trail. Becker County, started planning this newer section of the Heartland Trail in 2011. Now seven miles of that trail are built as of today,
and that goes from Park Rapids to Frazee. So you might have seen it if you go along Highway 10. There's a bridge also that goes over, one of the county roads there to get into Frazee. Picture on to the right there, that is part of the trail that's between Detroit Lakes and Frazee. That's next to Acorn Lake, and Highway 10 is just up the hill there. So, nice way that they are able to put the trail in there. And then in, 2,014 is when MetroCOT got involved. We got involved and, started the Clay County Heartland Trail task force. And, so we met number of times over the years, with this task force.
We have the DNR on there, all the jurisdictions along the route, and, the county and, the state and all that. So, and then, more recently in 2025, we, completed the Heartland Trail study in Clay County. So that's what I presented to you all, I believe, last, last about a year ago, I think it was. So, so now we're taken now that study is complete, we're taking the next steps, on that. So what you see here, I there's four segments, throughout the county. This is the westernmost segment. I focusing on this one for you guys since you're on this, area of the county. Figured you'd be the most interested in this segment.
And so, if you go to the next slide, I kinda have these callouts of different pictures and what it might look like and what's out there today. So the official trailhead is being considered at Centennial Park in North Moorhead, and that's where the Ball Diamonds are just, north of, 15th Avenue. And, so there is a path that goes out to that right now, and, it's on the north side of the road. And then, Downtown Moorhead, there's talk of also being a trailhead at that location. Now, of course, there'll be trailheads in Dilworth, Glendon, Holly, and so on too, but, like, as far as the beginning trailheads.
So you can see what that might look like. Next slide. And then if you see that dotted green line, that would be a temporary, initial alignment of the trail, because, the ultimate goal is to go over to 14th Street. And if you know that street today, doesn't cross railroad tracks and, it's probably a little hairy crossing Highway 10 also. So the goal would be to use existing infrastructure, existing trails to get from Centennial Park to, where the trail would be aligned on 12th Avenue South. So you can see we'd use that existing, 34th Street Bridge in Moorhead that goes over the railroad tracks.
There's a path along there. And then also along 12th Avenue South in Moorhead, you can see that picture there is north of, Horizon Middle School and also not too far from Dorothy Dodds. So there's already path there too. So we can at least make it as far as getting out of town along this route for now. Next slide, please. And then, when future infrastructure is built, I know there's discussion, and you all might know more about this than I do, about possibility of a bridge over the railroad tracks in the future, on 14th Street. I know that's been discussed. And so and then also,
paving 15th Avenue in in Dilworth as well. And if that were to be paved, it sounds like there could also be a trail along that, which could be the Heartland Trail. And so you can see some renderings there from the study, and also there was a corridor study done on 15th Avenue by MetroCog and also indicated there'd be a trail there for for the Heartland Trail and for other local uses too. And so you can see how the the on the bridge, the trail will be separated by a barrier, from the vehicles. And then you have kind of this long stretch here as you get from that
South part of Dilworth, South Of Dilworth to, Glendon. And so this is, very rural here, and currently, it's a township roadway, which means there is limited right of way, unfortunately, but there really aren't really any other corridors. Highway 10 was definitely discussed and is always a possibility, but what we heard from the public is that people really don't wanna be along Highway 10, when they're, rec on their bike or walking. So you can see that. It is possible, hopefully, to get that trail. We we know that that has been done, Otter Tail County as well to get trail along there. So, that would be some work with the,
township and with the county and, maybe even considering some dust control along the, gravel too if that, becomes a problem for users. And you can see what it looks like in that, rendering at the bottom there too, how it could fit in there. And then, of course, there's Highway 3036 that needs to be crossed. And so it's, pretty strong consensus that it's not wise to cross it at grade because of the speeds and the traffic. So that would be crossed using a tunnel, and so that's some preliminary plans of what that could look like as well. So that gets us through that segment there.
The rest of the segment, you might have heard would go, into Glendon, through Glendon, then out toward Buffalo River State Park. Getting into the park, we're looking at probably the north entrance just because of the sensitive lands and wetlands off to the west side of it. And then, getting through, ideally, into the MSUM Science Center, used to be the golf course there, and then, into Holly coming crossing Highway 10, south to north, and then exiting Holly toward the north, east and getting into Becker County. So we have been coordinating with Becker County on that alignment. As far as what has been completed since you since we last presented to you,
we have got the Clay County Heartland Trail back together again, the the task force back together again. And so there's been two meetings, since then, one in November and then one in January. And other things we've been looking at is diving a little bit more into the right of way in certain areas. And we've had some discussions with the, DNR, meetings with Buffalo River State Park and the MSUM Science Center. So there's a lot of work to be done. The the Buffalo River State Park currently doesn't, they have to change some ordinances for there to be a trail in there. And then the MSUM Science Center,
there's a new director of that science center. And so that's kind of a learning curve for this new person. And so they're a little bit, hesitant about it at first, but I think after some discussions, that might help a bit. So, I'd like to say that everybody's jumping up and down Buffalo River State Park and MSUM, but there's a little always some hesitancy. Buffalo State Park is concerned about, some of their cultural, resources on-site and environmental. And so a lot of a lot of hurdles to work with their artifacts too. I guess that's their concerns, but, we hope that they can welcome,
the trail as well. As far as, our last two meetings, I hope to see the Heartland Trail task force meet again soon. We are waiting. Our direction was to check with the county next, and there's a decision we wanna make of whether this trail should be a state trail or a regional trail. And you can go to the next slide there. And so or it could be a combination thereof. So as I mentioned at the beginning, the trail would be a, has been designated as a state trail. And so there's advantages and disadvantages to a state trail. Regional trail, state trail,
the maintenance would be done by the state, which is nice because then the local funds wouldn't have to be used so much for the maintenance of the trail. But it could take a very long time to get a state trail, built. They don't have funds for that for new trails. That has been done in Becker County, but it's seven miles, and it's been, you know, fifteen years of planning for seven miles. So, now regional trail, Otter Tail County has put in a regional trail, and they got 35 miles, 32 miles of trail put in within the same amount of time. So it will go quicker if it's a regional trail more than likely.
But then again, the county would have to or locals would have to pony up the cash for that. And recent discussions with we have one of the, county board commissioners on our Heartland Trail task force, and I'm not sure if there's quite the appetite for the county to take on a regional trail. So it might end up being a state trail, but we'll see what kind of decisions are made by the county. So we're working on coordinating a meeting with, it sounds like they wanna do kind of a work session to discuss it some more with the county and then go from there. So, if it is a regional trail, we would have to reapply for this as a regional trail.
Or if it remains a state trail, we can just keep pursuing. Probably the biggest challenge, maybe one of the biggest challenges of all would just be the funding for it. It would there is no funding for the trail, but, looking at Becker County, they've done a lot of lobbying in Saint Paul to get bonding bills together, which would give money for trails. And so that's that would be a big thing that we'd have to do in our area. And so we, there there's a lot of pressure, that those leaders put on, their legislators to get the funding. So a lot of, a lot of work down in Saint Paul would need to be done to get
the funding for it. With that, not sure if I have too many more slides. Oh, yeah. Another more infrastructure projects that might be coming up, you all probably know the status of this more than I do, but, 15th Avenue, Dilworth might be constructed in '28 or '29 perhaps. And so that's exciting. That gives an opportunity for the trail to go that route. The discussions of a bridge over the BNSF rail tracks, not sure where that is, but, we're excited to see that maybe happen someday. And then I don't know the status of a possible casino, if that's still a thing or not,
on the East Side Of Morehead, But that actually would help out the trail as well because 12th Avenue could be, urbanized or at least have a path along it, be paved, that kind of work. So, with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. Yes. I had one question. First, thank you so much for presenting today. I appreciate that. Mhmm. I had two questions. The first one was, do you know a rough estimate of how much Becker paid for the 35 miles that they had? Yeah. It was quite a bit. I think that Acorn Lake part I was telling you about that took a lot
of, of, funding in the bridge over that county road was another 1 or $2,000,000 too. So, boy, I would say it was at least $10,000,000 for that, but I hate to be quoted on that. That's okay. Yeah. So roughly 10 for 35 miles. And then so if we were to go with the regional, how many miles would deal like, is involved with Dilworth that we would have that going along fifteenth, say? Yeah. I would say, without looking at the map right now, two to three miles. Okay. Mhmm.
Just for clarification, it's seven miles that they paid for, not 35. The 35 was in auto Oh, sorry. Yeah. Sorry. That was seven miles. Seven miles for 10,000,000 for seven miles. 10 okay. 10,000,000 for seven miles. Mhmm. I think our estimate's a little bit less than that, but, you know, with inflation, it could go up. Mhmm. And we're looking at possibly two to three miles, so maybe maybe half that. Like, depending with the two wheels. Okay. If it was built, within the city of Dilworth there, it, and if it was a state trail, the state could pay for the construction of it,
if there's that bonding funding. So there's quite a few grant opportunities with the trail. And so there and as part of a roadway reconstruct, it could save money per mile of trail if it's part of another project too. Thank you. Yes. Who paid for that 10,000,000? But that's a if it's a state trail and it's not a regional, did locals pony up for that? Not much. No. Locals paid for some parts in, Detroit Lakes, maybe just leading up to the trail, like, right through the city of Detroit Lakes. But mostly, it was almost all state bonding funding and some grants. And so Becker County decided which seven miles to do?
Because it's it's not connected on either side. It's just connecting DL to Frazee Right. Not Frazee all the way to Park Rapids or anything else. Right. I think they thought that that's kind of the where the where the interest was between those two cities. There's definitely the mayor of, Frazee was very interested in this trail and so was Detroit Lakes. So I think they got together and got that connected. And I think part of the philosophy is like, well, you know, if we have this gap, then maybe there's more interest in actually completing that larger gap from Crazy to Park Rapids. How much private land would need to be
obtained in order to do this in Clay County? That's the biggest that's one of the biggest challenges, is that we have we have told them that there is really gonna be no private land. That's where we're going along road right of way. So, now if there's a landowner who's, you know, interested in selling a strip of land to make it a little further away from the road, that's great. But we think that, that we can do it in a perfect world without private land, and there won't be any imminent domain is one thing that we've kind of, I don't think there can be any imminent domain for a state trail either. So, And it would be the count sorry. And it would be the county that would drive that or the township or who
who makes those purchasing decisions considering this is not an actual entity that's trying to run it? If it's a state trail, it'd be the state that would do it. If it's a regional trail, it would be whoever is in charge of that. It might be the county. It would be the most likely entity. Okay. Mhmm. And they could, you know, negotiate with in town areas too. Be like, Dilworth, you wanna take this section on if it's Regional Trail or Morehead, you wanna own this section. Yes. I have one question. So, you know, there was talks already of, building 15th Street in in Dilworth. Mhmm. And so would it just be that if they decide to use 15th as a
trail, then the sidewalk area would be larger? Because I believe I remember in previous, renditions, they had a a, some sort of trailer sidewalk on there anyway to kind of match the flow. Mhmm. I believe there's a sidewalk. Or at least I know there's one over by the Baseball Diamond. So Mhmm. Yeah. I think the plans for 15th Avenue would be to have a 10 foot wide shared use path, which would qualify for the state trail. You just have to make sure all the other specs are per state trail too. But I think, you know, I can't speak for the city, but I would think, you know, with
Dilworth being aware of the trail, Peyton being pretty familiar with the trail as well, that, you know, if they were to put that path along 15th Avenue, then they would definitely wanna just make those little tweaks, make sure it's, to state standards for a trail. Okay. Mhmm. Any further questions? Yeah. It's okay. What's the urgency on this? Because this is a twenty year old project now that has seven miles built and no funding currently in Saint Paul. That's that's a tough question because, yeah, I hear we hear it from people like, get this trail built and then, I don't know if we have the local,
I don't know if the policymakers are quite as eager as they are in Becker County here as they from the county, for example. I mean, I hate to hate to, like but there's not the, you know, let's go down to Saint Paul and lobby and lobby and lobby and lobby till we get this bill. That's kind of been the case in Detroit Lakes and Frazee. So, without that push from, like, local elected officials, it's hard to say. It just doesn't seem to be the top priority for most jurisdictions here. There's other priorities. I remember meeting with the chamber, and they said, you know, that's nice, but, you know, here's our top three priorities,
and it wasn't the Heartland Trail. So, you know, I'm we're we're here to do the technical side of it. We'll we'll do what we need to do to get the coordination and all that, but it needs to be, from some some elected officials to really push it. So difficult with so few towns that it goes through. There's nobody here from Buffalo River State Park that's gonna be pushing for this. Right. There was there was a champion in Holly, a number of years ago. That's really how this Heartland Trail Task Force got started. He was just determined to get it done, and so he would meet whenever he could, and he's passed away since then.
So, but but we still hear it from some elected officials that we'd love to have this. Even Fargo elected officials say, boy, let's get this trail done. We'd love to have it, but, you know, we need to have the the funding behind it. Any further questions for Dan? Thanks, Dan, for all your information. Appreciate you coming back. See you now. Thank you. Yeah. You bet. Thanks for having a meeting just for this. Made me nervous. Yeah. Alright. Next item on the agenda is to receive and file building permits for So moved. February and March 2026. Did we have any in the packet? We do. I didn't I didn't get oh,
it's at the bottom of your oh, I didn't see that. Sorry. That's right. Oh, okay. I do have them. Got them. Oh, the Resco one came in. There it is. K. Alright. Sorry. We have a motion and a second. Get to the right page. Chad, motion and second by Steve. Mhmm. K. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Alright. Motion passes. Okay. And next item on the agenda is project updates. Becky. Don and I met with Rick Culberson last week, and, we discussed a couple of different things with him.
He, is he's got three lots in Keystone that he's planning on combining and then putting two twin homes on that lot on those lots. So on the West Side of Keystone, kind of on the Southwest Side over there. And then we also, spoke to him about his possibly interest in having a a farmer's market in the Eastview, you know, probably easiest to explain that it would be across from
the, Silver Spike, that's lot there. For the tree? The tree lot? Is The one the one pine tree? The one pine tree. That lot. But anyway, he gave us, he gave us a little bit of a, you know, diagram of what he was thinking about. Had quite a few different, you know, tent areas in there and stuff in the middle, more like, places for people to sit, you know, picnic tables and things like that to eat and so forth. Also would have probably a couple of, porta potties or something like that,
you know, to take care of those types of things and stuff. He not, Rick, but Peyton and, Don had also met with a couple of ladies that were really interested in getting this going, spearheading it and so forth. So Don was just pretty much just looking at, some different things that, you know, rules and stuff that we would like to have in place. You know, trash receptacles, probably operate from, you know, sun up to sundown or something like that. I don't see that they would really be putting in lights or anything like that.
It would just be pretty much that type of a thing. Probably the soonest that they would be able to put this together would be about mid July. So that would work well because then, you know, that's the the season to start selling produce and things like that or jellies and whatever people would like to go in and do over there. And, probably, we could be discussing this at the next planning meeting in June. You would have more concrete information from those ladies and so forth. Is that the ladies that ran the farmer's market last year?
They had one during local days that got cleaned out. Be. And I think they held some more in Whistle Stop Park. Okay. But maybe that's who he talked to. It could be. Okay. I I can't remember their names or anything like that. But, yeah, they did wanna kinda have, you know, an expanded area Okay. And stuff. So I have a question. So would this replace the farmer's market that goes on at Whistlestop Park, or would they just be relocating? I guess that wasn't really discussed. This was something that more Rick was, and Steve and and Lance were kinda spearheading this for that particular area just to
get more, you know, people over in that area and stuff. So the whistle stop one, that was more done through the test board. I wonder So that's why I'm thinking that maybe this would be kind of a separate thing, or maybe they would reach out to those individuals and say, hey. Let's do it all here. And then we have a central area for, you know, a lot of vendors. Definitely a lot more room for vendors than that whistle stop. Yeah. And more parking and everything over there too. Yeah. I think it would be nice to, like, just to be able to consult with the park board on that just because there
are some vendors that are there. It'd be nice not to be like, oh, well, which farmer's market do we go to that, you know, that day? Good idea. Definitely. So other than that, I did not really have anything else. Did you wanna say anything about anything, Chad? I guess the the two things that we've worked on are actually happening. So, we saw the building permit for Resco. Mhmm. We were out there for a groundbreaking, and, like, it's huge. It's a great foundation for, our light industrial park,
the solid foundation. Hopefully, it builds. It was like I said, the the site is enormous. Like, you don't realize it until until you get out there, so drive by it. It does put it in perspective. And then on May 11, we are doing the groundbreaking, right, for the community center. Again, another project that we've all worked on together over the years. That's coming to fruition as well. So, yeah, like, the planning is paying off. Hopefully, we continue to plan and move forward. Mhmm. And, hopefully, it doesn't take twenty years to go seven miles because that's not productive.
But it does pay off, and that's that's a testament to the to the people here. And, that really kind of vet the whole process and and make things happen because I think I'm excited. The next eighteen to twenty four months will be big and door. That's all I have at this time. I have a question. Very visible project or whatever is going on. Next, a quick trip. They're removing the big old trees. Yes. Is there anything you guys can share about that? We have not received any building permit application Okay. Or plans on that yet. K. Application Okay. Or plans on that yet. K. So I know that Don has spoken to someone about that lot and what they
are going to be doing there, but we have not received anything in the office yet. Okay. So that's about all I can really say because I don't know anymore for sure. No. That's fine. And then also, I would also like to thank all of you. May 29 will be my last day as deputy clerk for the city of Dilworth. And I do plan on, helping out part time maybe in June and July if they need me to help. Jessica Melvin has taken, or has accepted the deputy clerk position,
and now we will be hiring for another administrative assistant hopefully within the next couple of weeks so we can get someone going there. I really appreciate coming to planning meetings and everything. I've really enjoyed coming to these meetings because of the information is so helpful in my job and just been really just a really wonderful experience working with you guys too. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. We appreciate all that you do for us, Becky. We really know that you do all the work for us.
Right? So all of that, you know, you do for us to set up our meeting and to make it go successful. So thank you. And we'll miss you. We're gonna miss you. Yeah. I'm glad you brought it up because that was definitely your news to share. I didn't know where you were going, but I I really had to bite my tongue not to say anything. So, when I when I say it's a testament to all of us sitting here, the volunteers are one thing, but, like, you've held my hand through the entire public service from when I didn't even know how to get into city hall to, now they trust me with keys. Yeah. I was always prepared because Becky made sure I was prepared,
and I'll be eternally grateful for that. So our successes are yours, Becky. So thank you so much. And, hopefully, you're still gonna be around. Like Go be grandma. Yes. I'm gonna Go enjoy yourself. Good. Good. Definitely. Good. So yes. But thank you all so much. Yes. Appreciate it. K. Anything else? K. We'll adjourn today's meeting. Thanks, everyone. Thank you. I think that's the quickest one in the books so far. Peyton's gone. Things move faster. Yep.