The minutes will reflect that we're all here. Uh called the meeting agenda. It was distributed. Uh doesn't look like there's anything big deals on the agenda. Um the uh we discussed the budget at the last
meeting. Uh and the minutes reflected that. Um does anybody have any changes in the agenda first of all that they would like to suggest? If not, the record will reflect unanimous approval of the agenda. And
what about the August minutes? Did anybody see any need for change or improvement? Hearing nothing. The minutes are approved unanimously as well. Golf report. Are we going to have one? Well, I can do a brief update. Paul is
actually on the road right now traveling to Duth Supplies. Why don't you just say whatever you want to say? Well, I have some good news. We ran the year-to- date revenue through the end of August. It's up 20%. Versus 2024. So,
and we only raise prices what, 5% or so? Yeah. Or less. Yeah. Really? That's great. Lot of increased play is the bottom line. Like literally uh $30,000 up. Last year at this point, we were at $140,000. This year at 170,000.
So, really good job. So that means with with next year's budget where the expenditures were up, they'll be closer together again, I believe. So we'll be able to follow up on your request to dial up the revenue a little if it makes sense to do so. And apparently it does. September can be a really good month as
well. Last September we made about 25,000. So we're got this goal of uh 200,000 which was, you know, never before. Well, since you guys aren't members when we play, you'll be contributing to that. True, true. So, you know, September of
course a few times. September very weather dependent month though, just like camping and boating. Like last September was super nice, super hot, dry, and so it's going to be hard to beat. But for sure, based on what was kind of a normal year, normal
like weatherwise, like the play was way up thanks to Paul and his good crew and the conditions and word of mouth and little bit of advertising, but we know we need more advertising. We're certainly aware of that. Uh but yeah, the bottom line is really looking good up there. Um but conversely, there's
been some equipment issues. The latest is the septic tank, septic system had a bit of a leak, bit of a malfunction there for the clubhouse. And so Paul's I think that's what he's working on right now as far as getting parts, but uh he's got a local contractor on board to help
out with this uh leak in the tank. Could be one of those issues though, bigger ticket because of the age of that tank, if it's cracked and, you know, might need a new septic tank. Don't have a price on that yet, but who gets to go down and fix the leak?
Yeah, a local contractor. How about staffing costs? Are they about the same? Staffing is a little bit under budget. We were a little bit short in the clubhouse this year. So, yeah, we've sa we've got a little savings there. Not a lot. Yeah, pretty pretty even there. But um I know
Paul's also working on this idea of like working with one of these of a fellow club that is you know getting rid of their carts at the end of the season. I think he talked about this a couple meetings ago where we have this opportunity to purchase some
fairly good condition used carts from a colleague of Paul's that um we got to work on getting that papered up and see if we can afford that. But no, overall conditions are great. Uh play has been great and the bottom line
reflects that. And not for the minutes, but your chairman and his partner won the senior league this year by one point. Yes. Well, wait, we get to divide $300 equally as it turned out.
But that was a great moment in personal golf history. There you go. If you have a big enough handicap, you're useful. All right. Uh, anything else on golf? Any other questions or comments? All
right. City Council Craig. Yep. City Council, we had discussion. Basically, the big item on the agenda was discussing the budget. So, we opened up the meeting with uh putting together some information um for
next year's budget. We don't have anything finalized right now simply because we have to bring in some other departments numbers and everything like that. But we did discuss quite a bit of um uh figures and numbers concerning this
new building and what it's costing to operate, things like that. So, um it's about really the discussion I have. We'll be continuing um more budget process the next meeting we have in a work session that we're going to be having.
So, um that's about all I have. Okay. Questions from anybody? There's a fenced off area here beside the parking lot. Is that belong to the city? Uh no. No. We What's paved out here is
the city property. Who is that? The other property is uh Joel. Joel. Joel. The guy that Yeah. The same owner that owns the corner of uh the land across from Ben Franklin.
Oh, you mean the the place where the fire was? Yeah. Okay. All right. Yep. Joe, somebody. Yeah. All right. parks report. We had a brief thing in the mail or in the email I should say
and it's underneath your agendas and minutes if you want to look at it and you can want to highlight that for us. David. Sure, Steve. Yeah, similar uh to last month in July where we were about flat. I think we're up about $1,000 last July
versus previous July. this August came in with that same trend almost even up $2,600 which is less than 1% on $330,000. So too bad for us. We did suffer a dip in
occupancy or sales. You know, if we, you know, factor in our 5% rate hike, it would have been nice to be up that amount at this point, but not so much. So year-to- date revenue compared to last year is up only 2.6%.
Not the worst, not the best. Last year, we were in the same trend where a as of the end of August, we were kind of flat or just a few points up on 2023, but then September and October were really good months for us last fall. The weather held out. It was hot, dry in
September and October. And so, we made some big gains those two months. And you know, looking at that, I think I ran the numbers over $400,000 in revenue from last September and October. And so kind of putting that together with what we've
already got at about 1.5, we're still in great shape. Even if we come out, even with last September and October, we're going to be up to that like 1.8 1.9 on our uh final numbers, which are going to be above projected revenue. So, we're in
good shape, but just not that kind of big big growth that we're used to. Some years we see, you know, 5 10% growth. You mentioned earlier that the July was kind of flat because of a lot of bad weather. Was August similar? I can't say that that same excuse. Uh
August seemed a bit drier. Um so, no, the rain wasn't as big of a factor as July. But one theory is the the heat of the southern half of the state like the Twin Cities area in particular didn't suffer that heat dome and you know heat indexes in the 100
pluses like some summers. So kind of a look down the road where the weather in the Twin Cities wasn't insufferably hot in August would be an offset for why folks weren't coming up the shore to get away from that heat. One theory. Um the Canadian
gas is another factor there where we've definitely noticed a downturn in Canadian visits. So there's that. Um but no one reason in particular stands out as to why August was flat. Seemed like decent weather up here, but like I say,
just not hot hot down south. Do we need to explain that we're not the reason why Canada doesn't like the US? We try. I I'm sure that's wouldn't help. you know, as the local visitor bureau is already into that and that was even at
the start of the season, there was like a Maya come down in Maya kind of campaign, you know, to try to get Canadians down, welcome them, but it's just not it's not falling on the right ears or we don't have that concerted effort.
My golf partner, sorry, has a bumper sticker on the back of his Tesla. It says anti-Elon Tesla Club. Maybe we need something like that for Well, we just want to say come on down. Welcome neighbors. For the internet, but the exchange rate is also very
not in their favor. It continues to be close to like 70% or something 60 some percent. So, so can you remind me over the years um you know we did a 5% rate hike. I mean is that are we three to five each year
roughly? One to five. Yeah. Some years it's two and a half, some years it's three, some years it's five. There's no like every year the same, but the last last year was three or sorry, five the year before that was three. It's a lot of it
in the convenience of the rates where like 3% is like 50 cents more a night and 5% is a dollar more a night. And so it's kind of trying to keep those rates even. Do we have any forecast as to how quickly the the long-term seasonal loss
that are going to be converted to monthly lots or season nightly something less than this whole season how fast that's going to happen? Do we know? You know, nothing that's scientific, but anecdotally, we've already got three of
the 30 that are in play this season already. Uh we'll we've and there's going to be a fourth added as another person's sold out from their prime lot. So just in one year we'll have four out of three. That by itself should increase revenue on the margin, shouldn't it?
It does. It sure does. And so I have to account for that some in our as we looked at the budget last month and there was like that daily category and then the monthly category. We'll have to start to adjust those accordingly where because we're less
monthly sites because really each one of those was returning $4,500 per site. So yeah, across three, four sites, you know, that's approaching $20,000. But conversely, as a nightly, we hope to capture that same amount in more. And so
it's I think more of an accounting technique to not you know to reflect that fine in the nightly versus the monthly. Well the seasonal what what what do we make off those lots in for the seasonal charge about 4500.
Okay. So you're saying for if they're doing it for two weeks or a month it should be somewhat increased. That's the plan or that's the on paper theory like yes nightly rates are are like 40% more than seasonal monthly rates. So that we
can look on some of those like the front row sites for example the ones right down on the bay they return over $10,000 per site on nightly rates. But keep in mind those charge the most premium prices. Those are like the $77 a night
sites and we don't offer the weekly discount. So obviously they're and they're the most popular. They're always full. So there's no question those like 12 sites down front that are nightly are the high performers and we make nearly 20% of revenue that we're
converting our lakeside sites basically, aren't they? True. But the second row, as we say, these new ones that are coming on as nightly don't charge that same $77 price. They charge like a $60 price. And we still offer the weekly discount on
them, which is the free night. So we we want to reconsider that issue with some meeting between now and the next. Next meeting, we'll look at rates for 2026 rates and policies, and that'd be the ideal time to take a look at those
sites. Couple of decisions also. Should they be reservable versus non-reservable drop in? I would tend to favor reservable as then they would be booked like fully. I already have this sort of feeling that
they're not being used as much as they could be as dropins where we have this demand. People go online to book. They don't get those options to book, but they're sitting empty. So, so you'll give us some numbers to look at next month for sure. Okay.
And strategy. Very good. And my question too is is the these percentages here, the 2.6, does that include the marina and the moring field? Yep. Yeah. This is a combined like campground and marina. Okay. Revenue does not include golf.
Was the marina bad in August? Like July also? Not nearly as bad. No. Fuel sales were actually even. $15,000 each month each year. So unlike July where they were down like 50%, we made a big recovery or we we were
able to match last year's fuel sales. A big part of that is the Border Patrol boat, right? The local Border Patrol agents keep a a goast boat in the marina. Twin 250s usually puts on 100 gallons of gas every time it goes out, which is like $500.
Um and they didn't go out much in July. they had, you know, crew and staffing issues where they need like four people on the boat. And so that was noticeable like why we were off in July. Not just the weather, but the lack of the border patrol using
their boat. And so just now this past month, they've had new recruits, new training, much more fuel sales to them. We've also had some bigger big cat big boats. you know, two 300 gallons of diesel sales
really puts us in good shape. Uh so yeah, we're in good shape, but we really need some nice weather here in September and October to make pace with last year. And unfortunately, this week doesn't look like it's it definitely turning. Uh big big news here
from internally staff as far as celebrating a successful passing on of the portable restroom trailer. Just this morning, I met with Victor, the driver from the company. I think he's just a third party contract uh delivery
person, but we are done with the portable restroom trailer. Uh city council approved the buyback program, which you can see here was I thought very attractive as far as the we paid about $108,000 for it. The offer
from the company was 75,000. a little bit more than I anticipated given its condition, but I wasn't one to point out all the little scratches and flaws. So, yeah, really, I think a successful
experiment here with temporary public restrooms in, you know, the recovery of $75,000 from this trailer. Did we ever do do an estimate of the cost of an equivalent number of portaotties instead just to see how much more, if any, we paid?
Yeah. No, but portaotties were still placed in Boulder Park last summer next to the restroom trailer as a like 24/7 solution, you know, even though the the so the the trailer was being locked at night. And so the thought was to keep a few
portaotties next to it so it didn't get, you know, vandalized or beat up too badly. And it turned out with G&G's like service where they they sort of keep track of use and toilet paper use and fill it up the bowl use. and they really ended up with about the same amount of
portaotties as every summer because it just gets that busy down there. And so there wasn't a lot of cost savings with our portaotti budget last summer as a result of the trailer. Um there was some extra expenditures for pumping the trailer, right? That was a
that was an additional service that isn't reflected in this 108,000. I think when it was all said and done, the trailer costs the city about 130,000 when you factored in the pumping and the electricity that needed to be supplied
to it in the spring. And so, you know, it wasn't cheap, but um it's good to recoup a significant portion of that. And that was a a city expense, not a park, right? Yeah. Yes. It did not reflect the park expense budgets. I believe it was kind of
packaged into the city hall budget. Yeah. And was it just one summer? Mhm. Yep. Wow. Because now we have these ones, right, that are open the same hours as the liquor store? More or less. They open earlier on the weekends, 8 a.m. Seven days a week,
whereas the liquor store is like a later opening on the weekends, but then they close when the liquor store closes at 8:00. 10 o'clock. They close at 8, I think. I think they're open till 9 now, aren't they? Maybe on the weekend it's later. And
whatever it is, the town rolls up its streets by 9. Yeah. Yeah. And really to have a first summer under our belt with these, it's been, I think, very successful as far as staff cleaning them. No big hassle, no big issues, no big breakages. Couple of
graffiti, vandalism incidents, you know, markers on the walls, but with the durable tile surfaces, that stuff cleaned up pretty easy. But the the use was tremendous and the the durable surfaces are proving themselves just that.
And your staff clean the trailer, but is your staff cleaning these ones too? It's a shared responsibility with the streets department. So like a just like the trailer where like Streets cleans it in the morning, we clean it in the evening. That's still the model, but it
looks like Streets actually sort of picked up a part-time seasonal employee off of our roster to work for them. It's the same budget. It's just a who's the boss, you know, who's the supervisor issue. But yeah, we we've
like shared our workers with the streets department and one of them's so good they just picked her up and she's kind of the main person on this and might continue through the winter. That's yet to be worked out.
But yeah, good news on the restroom trailer being gone. More good news, the application we put in late July for the bath house 2 funding to the state, you know, 1.3 million, they're obviously interested in it because they're coming up tomorrow for a site visit. Joe
Shapesky from the Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission. He's like the coordinator. I think he'll be bringing up a few of the selection committee people that are out touring sites, touring project sites. They're in Duth tomorrow morning and then they'll
be up here tomorrow afternoon. In case members want to walk along with that tomorrow, what time will it begin and where? Uh the times to be determined. I said 2:30, but I got an email from Joe that he might be running early, so he would let us know when he's leaving Duth. So,
it's I can't say, Steve, it could be any time in the midday. Uh, and there's a little issue of like public meeting law where we couldn't have like three or more of you in on the tour. So, so if people want to join you, they should call you about 9 or 10 by then,
you'd know what's happening. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Is it with just you or is Mike going or what? I think it'll just be me. Mike Fiser or Ros? I don't don't know. Just curious. I think it's just me.
Not that I don't think you can handle it. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe not. Maybe that's not the worst idea to have a little wingman support. Yeah. I did have a nice chat with Mike Fischer though, our LHB consultant, and because he's really keen on this
project, and the initial contract that we signed with LHB to put this all together was like on a like hourly billing schedule, not to exceed $30,000. If we think back to like several months ago when we got those guys under contract, it was about a $30,000
proposal for all the work they've done to like prepare the plans and submit the application. It sounds like we haven't spent that amount out. He's going to get with his accounting department to figure out where we're at with that funding or with the with, you know, what we've
spent. And he's pretty certain we're under the 30,000. And if that's the case, he's like offering more services like what else should we plan? Where else should we go with this? I kind of put him on hold, you know, thinking, let's just take it one step at a time.
If and when this grant comes in successful, we've obviously got the next step of like real engineering and plans, you know, architectural plans that are not going to be cheap. So, we might just like keep that money for that. But I also said, you know, in terms of phasing
this master plan and the next big priority, yes, there's the trail head parking and the wreck hall and the idea of like what should we do across the street? And we pretty sure we're going to work with the DNR on that and maybe a separate category of funding where
because the DNR, you know, wants to see this for their Gigami bike trail, they want to see that trail head parking. There's other funding mechanisms within the DNR that could help with that. It wouldn't be legacy money. And so it's a bit of an offseason project for me to
work with Two Harbors DNR on this trail head parking idea. And you know, if the wreck hall is included in that, you know, restrooms are certainly going to be a piece of that. So that's kind of playing out over here with the DNR separately. So I felt at least my
initial feeling was this lakewalk trail from the marina or from the bridge, you know, from the connection corner down along the south side of the front row across the little creek to the pavilion
to the boat launch. To me, that was a big something we heard from the public, something important and something everyone would value. You know, the idea of like separate from the road, we have a walking path that's along or near the lake
um really is where I would focus funding or planning. But again, we can talk about this in the offseason like if and when this bath house 2 is a go, well, we'll start working on that, but then what's the next step? What's the next phase? I
think just based on comments from the master planning process and park use and seeing people use these areas like that walking trail separate from the road is an important piece for this and the bath house too as
far as like serving not just park users but day users and beach users and boers and every everyone else. So, we'll see when I'm with the group tomorrow strolling. We'll take that route just as a preface to things to come. I think
they're going to want to know like right like you put this bath house here. How's that going to serve the greater good? And so, we'll be able to walk that and look Well, there it'll be. You can see the bath house from the lake. Could you close the road?
No, not if we want access to those RV sites. You wouldn't be able to come in and go from the upper upper road. No. Can't get turned around, don't it? No. There that's entirely how you get into those sites.
And you know, on most on any given day, it's more pedestrians than cars on that road. I ride that road all the time. Yeah. And it's wall to-wall pedestrians and dogs. Yeah. And it only gets tied at the culvert at the br at the creek, right? That needs to be
there are a number of sites there that don't have a back door, especially as you get closer to this to the corner. Could it could it be made such that the first row is back access? No. Boy, that's two nos. Sorry, Bob.
I'm glad I mean there's it's always possible, but it would take a major No, it actually isn't possible. three. There's those second row sites right above them. Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad I came. Thanks, Dave. Yeah. Sorry, Bill. But, you know, for sure we know there's
a route on the south of that road that's perfect for walkers. I mean, I walk it now. It kind of, you know, rambles in and out of the like there's some coastal cover there, you know, wild flowers and shrubbery and the fish museum and like there's there's kind of already a pretty
wellbeaten path, not on the loose cobblestone, but back in that little brush buffer that is sort of where we would picture that. But something I talked about with Mike is like, and something we heard in the master plan is we don't want another lakewalk, right? Look at all the maintenance and the wash
out and how many times they've had to fix the lakewalk in Duth because of high waves. We have that same phenomenon here with an un unprotected harbor, big waves coming in from the southeast. You know, I've seen them topping over that cobblestone beach and flooding out the
road not too long ago in the spring when the ground was still froze. There was two feet of standing water throughout that front row and the road and any kind of trail we do down there is got to be So what does that mean in terms of
constructing a path there design and engineering needs to be feasible. We need to look at what it would cost to do it in pavement or concrete or raised. Yeah, it's got to be ADA accessible.
But yeah, boardwalk maybe. As long as it's not a lakewalk that washes out. Yeah, you don't want that. Boy, a good reason to close the road right there. Can't park campers if you close the road. Yeah, that was that was option master plan.
So, put in a bunch of tiny house. He He'll come around. Take him a few years. Yeah, I might retire. Just keep asking. I might retire. You can ask the new guy. Then comes the whole issue then once you do all that you're still going to have people walking on the road. Yes.
So I mean it's like Yes. You know how that goes. You build a bike path and people go down Highway 61 on their bikes. Yes. Yeah. It's awesome. But at least if they're on the, you know, they might choose to walk closer to the lake,
you know, which is a help that especially if there's some kind of signage or whatever that gets people through that bridge area and out to the If we get half the walkers off the road, that would be worth doing, wouldn't it? Well, like you said, there's not a lot
of traffic now. I drove through there today, but I mean as there's people walking and it's like there's not the only reason I drove through there is go take a look at the the the boats and see who's cleaning fish and all that kind of stuff. But other than that, you
know, the whole main use for that road pretty much is for campers going in and out. Mhm. Otherwise, it becomes a little private walkway for people who are staying down there. Mhm. people walking over to the north house, that kind of thing.
Yeah. And once the season's over and the camp, you know, camping's over, it's even less driven and more walkers, more like townies, dog walkers. It's a beautiful area. I'm happy to
share it with the group tomorrow. I wish hopefully it's not raining too bad, but yeah, it's in the forecast. Might be okay. So then last thing for us is the well not last but the big event of September of course radio waves back in the park
this weekend. Friday I believe about 4:00 it starts. Yeah. Tent is already set up. Power will go in on Thursday. Uh this is their 18th not consecutive year but 18th time in the park. 19 musical acts. Uh
we'll be doing our usual striping of the ball field to maximize parking down there for day users. Uh we also set up the barricades and additional trash and recycling just to support the event. Uh but it should be noted the station does rent 17 of those sites that are closest
to the back to the blue gate. You know, they pay good money for those. Uh that includes the power up for the stage and then they use that for food trucks and some some staff. And the blue gate is the one that goes into Sweet Arts Bluff. Mhm. Okay. How did it get the name of the Blue Gate?
Mhm. Yep. So, we're very excited to be having that event back because it's really quite a celebration, a local celebration that got a lot of campers coming in that are from Cook County. Is there enough power down there for that? There is.
That's amazing because all those food trucks and Yeah. The stage has got to Yeah. You think we need 600 amps, huh? Well, I I went down and prowled around. just looks like you'd have to take everything and run it to the stage. Yeah.
Our biggest problem last year was uh we didn't have a there was a it was about a GFI. Yeah. And what Sam set up the the electrician. Yeah. And we lost power to it because of a GFI. But tripping. They're on it this year.
Yeah. I mean, there's plenty of power, but it I think legally they now have to the festivals have to have GFI protected things. Yeah. And the and the stages can blow out a GFI really quick. One twang of the guitar. Yeah.
How much power does a stage take? A bunch. Got it. Thank you. Yeah. I have no idea. So, we need somebody sitting by the GFI to push it back in. Push it really quick. That's your job. Okay, push that.
I'll do that on Saturday. Yeah, they got that figured out though. That was the biggest problem last year. But yeah, and also interesting because last year was both Sam Headstrom and Jonathan Headstrom were both there at the same time and neither one of them could figure it out.
Which of the 18 will be of most interest to people who learned their music in the 50s and 60s? Uh, I you know um the swing band. When will that be? 10:00 a.m. Saturday morning.
We'll save you a chair. And Sunday Sunday Sunday noon looks wonderful. There you go. Yeah, that's all I've got. I will be appearing before council like Craig mentioned. I think next week I'll be in on a work session with the budget.
So, we'll take a look at those numbers. And I wonder when budgets do last month the drafts, but the the council deliberates now for the next couple of months on the levy, right? They set a preliminary levy sort of, you know, not to exceed and then
wait for final revenue on the all our operations to come in late October. We'll have some final numbers on revenue and expenses get really close and then by December it's finalized. Have we had any progress on our sign? Is
that part of some project that's going Yeah, it's this grant project. Yeah. Not not this current one. Yes, the current one. the the big new site. Mhm. So, can we get a look at that before it's in the ground? For sure. Contract. First, we got to get the
money, but then we'll look at the design. Money. Look at some design ideas. Wonderful. Do you ever do a census of townies in the park compared to residents? Not officially, just anecdotally,
but there's a lot of us down there for sure. Especially offse all townies, walking, biking, hanging out. Yeah, there's some groups that are like seasonal. You know, they don't come when it's busy because too many dogs, but there's some dieards that come every
day and Yeah. be sure to tell them that Lois, our 90year-old walker with two poles, and her landlord walked there every day in the suburb. Yep. Nice. Yep. It's a great spot.
No, I don't I don't do any She was It just just gets a lot of city use. It sure does. That pavilion gets a lot of city use. You know, and I think that's part to our message over the years, at least on my tenure, I've said, you know, we're not just a campground. We're not a private.
Come on down. Like, we're a public park. the connection, the landing, all that, the master plan, all that has only enhanced our messaging of, you know, we're open. We're we're a great public I think you said it last, we're fantastic public park that just happens to have a campground.
Yeah. And that's really well said. Yeah. My my wife will be down swimming in the bay tonight regardless of the temp, you know. It's that's what's Yeah. Yeah. I have seen a lot of use of the beach and the pavilion and
Yeah. Yeah. It's just been a a nice kind of slow awakening to the opportunities down there. And once people find out, they keep coming back. For sure. Towny's used the wreck hall for birthdays and reunions and showers
and memorials and the pavilion as well. So, we want to keep that keep that spirit. So, take back the beach. Open it up and make it accessible. Yep. Yep. Make it comfortable.
Is there anything you have to add on your report? Dave, that's it. Steve, are there any comments or questions from the members? I with regard to parks. Okay. I have something. Okay. And I don't know if it would go under your report or old
business, but I just need a clarification because I've had a couple people approach me about this um proposed trail system up the Gun Flint that you know.
Oh, Sweetheart's Bluff or not Sweethearts uh Sawtooth. Sawtooth. Sawtooth Bluff. Well, I'm I'm aware of the whole, you know, the thing at the old, you know, the end of the old ski hill, the she what's it? She or she
property. Yeah. That whole thing. And I I said and I asked both these people. I said, "Is that what you're talking about?" And they're like, "No, no, there's another one. There's another one that's west of the water tank." and they
said they heard you on the radio talking about it and I was like I don't think there's two things going on and they insisted that there it was a different cuz I kept saying well this is you know you mean the one where he's
trying to get the county to buy the prop you know and they were like no the city owns the property and I'm like I don't sure sure it's county land up there right this this is all saw bluffs It's just one project, right? There's not
in essence, but it is it's so and I could see me talking about it three months ago when Mitch Travis was here, right? That's the Sawtooth Bluffs County City project, right? It is one project, right? The sheath is
a separate county initiative that is in that same context of Sawtooth Bluffs because of how it borders or like I guess interrupts some of the county land that's over the hill. Uhhuh. That that if there's some access issue,
right, where like to get to the sheath property, you have to go through the the Sawtooth Bluffs County, you know, land. us to do that. And so why that came up or why that's being talked about is not our regard.
Not the city. No, it's the county thing. It's the county, right? It really has nothing to do with the city property. That's the front side of this Sawtooth Bluffs 600 acre project. Let's say 400 of it is
this is the counties over the hill and 200 of it is the city's front side, you know, the from the ridge line on down. Okay. And yes, in that master plan from 2018, that was a city county collaboration.
Mhm. There's a bubble concept diagram of biking trails and hiking trails and dog parks and disc golf parks and ski trails and an access road in approximately at the water tower location
and some sort of support facility, you know, restrooms. It's all just bubble drawings and conceptual maps of, you know, if and when we ever got regionally significant, right, was the push for that in 2018. But it
ended up in a bit of a okay, here's a good ideas for plans if the city and the county can agree to the shared management and ownership of this facility of of the trails, etc. So there
was this like they took that plan only so far because it's not just a city land project. It's not just a county land project. It's both. And the need for a joint powers agreement was evident and remains so.
And just in this recent last nine months of the county allocated like $30,000. So the countyy's got a parks and trails commission which is made up of like trail users and Craig forestry DNR.
Are you on that? Yeah. Yep. DNR county Mitch. I'm not a seated member, you know, seated member, but Craig is our trail city liaison. And so that group that that county parks and trails commission
last summer said after we got our regional significance for the wreck park, they kind of got back to Sawtooth Bluffs and said, "What about us? What about the Sawtooth Bluffs? What can we do to get regionally significant?" And so I went to one of their meetings and just said, "Hire HKGI." And they said, "Oh, how much would that
cost?" And I said, " $70,000." And so they so the county then allocated $30,000 to that end thinking or hoping the city would come and match that. Oh, right. And we'd re-engage with master
planning of Sawtooth Bluffs and have a consultant that would like get us through the process, which is not the what needs to be done. We need to come to the table with a joint powers agreement. The city county officials
and the city's always had this message of we'll be there when you're ready, county, but we want you to lead forward. Yeah. The city's position has been still is this isn't a priority for us, but we're happy to help if and when it's
a priority for you, county. And the commission might think it's a priority. So much so that they got the board, the county commissioners to allocate $30,000 for planning. And I think that's what spurred the
recent news and efforts about like the survey. And then the Mitch came to the city council and said, "Where are we at?" Council said, "Well, it's not a priority." Yeah. 2025 it wasn't um a priority on
our priority list. Um, we haven't sat down for 2026 yet, but um, maybe there'll be a discussion at that time to see how the county is viewing it.
Yeah. And so, so in terms of like land to the west of the water tower, Yeah. that's city land. It's in the Sawtooth Bluffs bubble and there's really no immediate plans to develop it. Is is your sense that this
the preserve the bluff effort that's going on is is only about the private property development that they're against or is I'm not that familiar with that
actually. I just read the article on the radio site about it. It's my only knowledge of that group. So I can't really speak to what that's about. Like I I'm not sure if they're against this, you know, development that you've just been describing. I am not either. Yeah.
Well, there's been a lot of talk about what to do um you know, where to take it? What are we what are we going to what are the suggestions? There's there's just a lot of talk, right, about everything,
you know? I mean, it could become hiking trails, bike trails, uh, recreational use for the public. It could all tie into the Pine Mountain or the pin cushion pin cushion area, all those kinds of things, you see. But
I think, you know, I think what was ra I think what came to the forefront on a lot of those discussions was, okay, what are you going to what's going to actually be constructed or built up there that we're going to see from downtown? And I think that's a concern that people are having.
Of course, there's a lot of private land up there and you can't, you know, people have the right to do what they want to do on the private land. Build what they want to build, build a house, build a cabin, whatever. Some it's a city zoning, of course. Yeah. If they're on city land or some of
it's county land, right? Yeah. So, well, the county land's behind the mountain, right? No. So, it's less visibility issue. That's a generalization, but Yeah. Well, some of it on the edge is county. Like that gentleman's land, that's county.
Um, so I don't know. Right now, it's just a discussion of the bringing it back to the forefront of because it was all talked about in what, 2018. Mhm. You know, then, you know, and some of some of the pieces kind of have fallen into place sort of like the doc park. Um
there was also discussion about disc golf or disc uh frisbee golf frisbee golf whatever where and that was actually going to be on the other side of the gump in that one corner piece of land and now that's got changed to something else and I don't know where that is right now either but you know
just brainstorming things you know so I guess it's whoever whatever you know somebody's got to just really champion it to well move it forward word it seems like. Yeah, user groups. Okay, well that's helpful.
User groups and I think the general consensus is at least in my opinion of watching this kind of roll out is I think I think I can't predict anything but I'm thinking ultimately you know
it's going to be orientated towards public use. I think that's going to be the least controversial thing to do. But, you know, I don't know what does that mean, right? And low impact. Low impact like that was the you know,
the 2018 master plan which is still available or still online was a was a good effort. We had good engagement. We had open house type of stuff and surveys and what would you like to see up there and everybody said leave it alone or I shouldn't say everyone but the message was let it be
don't wreck the views don't overdevelop it keep it natural was the conclusions and that was in accordance with like well if it's a regionally significant park that locks it up for those you know non-develop you
know non intense development activities like the, you know, hiking trail, biking trails you wouldn't see from down here, right? If there's camping, it would be disperse tent camping, not RV park trailer camping. So, you know, it had
already sort of gone that direction in 2018 where the kind of uses that were programmed on that bubble diagram were very low impact naturebased recreation as a way to secure that viewshed and you
know, you know, prevent development. So, but there was a clear like need for a joint powers agreement and who's going to run it? How's it going to be funded? That sort of business has yet to be
settled. What uh caused the city to own that parcel of land up there? Has it always owned it or It's always been city land. It was a city ski hill at one time. Oh, that's a part of the old ski. I don't know if it's there yet, but part
of it was there. It was a single toe rope that went up the hill. I've walked the area. It's kind of looked like fun. We used to ski it when I was younger. We'd make mini skis out of our old parents old wood skis. We'd cut them up
and make mini skis out of them. So, does that account for the all of the land the city owns up there or was additional land bought? That's even farther up though, right? Yeah. That's an even bigger mystery is like how is the golf course city? Exactly. There's another one.
What? The city golf course. That has to do with Well, that's on the other side. Gilchrist family. Yeah. Yeah. It was private objection. Not respons. I'm talking about the land that goes from the from the water tower. Yeah. Yeah. Until you get to the part that was the
old ski hill. Yeah. Going west. Going west. Yeah. Why? How? Why is it Cydia? I don't know. because well it's also goes all the way down to the hospital because of the water tanks along the Gun. I suppose the city had all of it
they had to have that land to do the water system. The old water system used to be dug into the side of the Gun Trail where the where that metal tower is now. Yeah. That says Gun Trail. When you go up to Gunland, the old water tank used to be buried in that hillside. It was a clay
tank. H and they had to they dug that all out of course to re to do the new tank and then I think that's about the time they did the other two tanks that are down lower. If there's anybody in this city who
knows more about how we acquired that property, I'd be interested in knowing the answer. Yeah, maybe they've had it for years. I don't know. Does that address most of your questions? That's really helpful. Thank you. You know, I think the message to the masses
is like nothing's happening currently. Yeah. There's no hard and fast plans. This is what we're going to do because um at the parks and trail commission we did talk about some things that you know what people were bringing up
and I'm just you know I'm just no no no that's not going to work. That's not going to work. More nos. No that's not going to work. More nos. That's not going to work. So it's just like well well we got to talk about it right. You got to lay everything out there. You know, if we're going to do something up there, then you gota you're going to need public input.
You're going to need all kinds of things that you need to do to go through that process. And it's not going to happen overnight. That's for sure. Like everything else takes time to do and you want to do it right. And you know the key, if I understand it correctly, is when the county decides it wants to
do something, they will forward to us a proposed joint uh powers agreement that we can then react to. We meaning the city, not so much us. I'll guess we get involved in it to some extent because it becomes park property,
right? Unless it's county park. Who knows? Yeah. We'll see. Yeah. Well, any event, if and when they said when, you should let us know. Oh, for sure. Is there any new business? We will all be in No, I have maybe old business, I think.
Okay. Well, here it is right there. Well, and I think I know the answer to this, but I forget it, but I was reminded in August during our busiest time when I drive down this street into the uh Coast Guard parking lot, which is completely full in August and
everybody's walking to town and there's no sidewalk. real broad and I know we've talked about this before about you know and and they're just but there's no place I mean they have to walk in the middle of the street because there's so many people going both directions city we talked about this and we have talked about it but I forget who
so Broadway is a county road Broadway yeah a county road in the city yes just like 8th Avenue state a county road right yes county road Wisconsin streets the same way so but the safety of it seems to be strange because there's cars trying to
there's bicyclists there's scooters there's motorcycles and it's just like it's such a a mess in August so I just stay away from it. But I drove down it a couple times. It's just cuz it's probably one of maybe the second biggest parking lot and there's just so many people there and
well that's something to talk about when we look at fixing the boulder boulder and the piling along that edge. Yeah, that would be a good time. Yeah, there's a planning process. Yeah,
I'm thinking that huge lot needs more than one sidewalk. I think everybody likes to walk along the harbor. Um, that'd be a good spot. And then everybody also likes to walk along the other harbor cuz you're going to the Coast Guard line. So whether you put sidewalks on both sides or whether you a
lot of big parking lots in the big cities that you go to, they have parking, but then down the middle of the parking lane is a sidewalk that protects kids and parents with strollers and things like that. So they're not going behind cars and you know it' be that would be something to look
at and lay that out and look at that. But I see So we own the land on the side on outside the rightway. Outside the rightway on just on the west side. West side. Yeah. Boulder park. Nothing on the east side or the rocks. No
on the east side. Okay. East side's like there's a sidewalk till about Red Pine, right? And then at Sydney's and the private residence there is none kind of ends at uh right before Sydney's ends at shorine. Yeah. Yeah. Right before and then in the actual parking lot
itself all the way down to going towards Coast Guard is city property. That is city property. All the rocks there and few picnic tables and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And you could put a sidewalk in there, but you got to realize that it is going to get hit with storms.
It gets covered up. I'm confused. at the next meeting, could you bring us some kind of map, handrawn or otherwise, that that lays out who owns what down there? Sure. That would be helpful. Yeah. And as Craig's alluded to, there's
right now we're engaged with this engineering firm. We've got some grant money to look at like storm water and shoreline resiliency in the Boulder Park zone in the that old seaw wall that's right after the trading post corner. you know, there's like a sheet piling there
that's kind of porous. Every time the big waves come rolling in, we, you know, lose some material on the back side of it. And so this spring, we got like a Great Lakes initiative, federal funded $120,000
to explore options for shoreline stabilization and storm water management in that corner. But we've always when we've met with that group, we've said we much bigger project down here with the Coast Guard facility, with the parking
lot, you know, with just we need a holistic approach to this whole point where if and you know, when we get the Coast Guard facility, we certainly need some master planning around from, you know, basically Boulder Park on down
and that we don't have an agreement with the DNR anymore that that is to be the boat launch parking lot because that's been transferred over to the park now. And so it really is a blank slate opportunity to put in proper pedestrian access and improve our shoreline
resiliency, improve boater access along that sheet piling. um you know feature some I would say different parking configuration even because right now you look at that lot and it's striped like long for truck trailers which is very inefficient because you're
parking like two cars or you could do three third person can't get out so they're wasting a lot of space so I think there is like like you say Steve if we want to look at this next month as just a concept coast guard point planning
it's a foreshadowing of a bigger master planning effort. I I want the map only because I couldn't understand what was being said about who owned what and who controlled what. So, it would be helpful to have a little map to Yeah. make sure of that and then then we can decide how much we want to talk about it.
Yeah. And I would and it would give me a chance to really bring us up to speed on this recent planning effort because the the engineers were just in town last week. I wasn't with them. I was on vacation, but they were down there looking at the sheep piling and talking about the waves. And now they're going to do the type of data analysis for what
it would take to do it better down there. And storm water management the same way. There's it's just a surface lot right now that's just draining into the low spots. And it's there's some there's some opportunities there. Well, is there anything else for the
good of the order? This is your chance to bring up something we haven't talked about. Okay, I guess it must be time to go home. We're a journ. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks.