| Grant will help county park |
By: Paul M. Malchow
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Posted: Thursday, February 11, 2010 10:28 am
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A feature of the Lake Washington park has been the old bridge for walking.
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After three years of applications, Le Sueur County has finally landed a Department of Natural Resources grant for improving Lake Washington park. County Parks Director Don Reak shared the news at the Feb. 2 county board meeting.
Over the past few years Reak has developed a plan for creating a camping site at the park which is located on the northwest corner of Lake Washington. There are currently four sites at the park, two with electrical hookups. Reak said aside from primitive camping sites at Clear Lake in Lexington, the county offers no other camping facilities at its parks. He added he feels the demand is sufficient to pursue a quality camping area and the Lake Washington park is best suited for developing that plan.
The park will feature 29 gravel pads for campers, a dump station, and a shower house which will also serve as a storm shelter. A picnic shelter is also included in the plan and Reak expects some sort of trail system to be developed as well.
“We’ve had the property for 30 years,” Reak said. “It’s time to do what the land was meant to do.”
Commissioner Joe Doherty asked Reak about maintaining the park. Reak said the park is already mowed and didn’t feel a lot of additional maintenance would be required. He did propose the possibility of a caretaker living on park property for at least the summer months. The Richter Woods county park has a caretaker couple living on the grounds.
Reak told the commissioners the county has been awarded a $400,000 grant from the Department of Natural Resources to be used toward the park upgrade. However, to receive the funds the county must also contribute $140,000 to the effort.
The county has a park dedication fund which currently contains about $150,000. At this time that money is dedicated to land acquisition only. The board would need to pass an ordinance releasing the funds to another purpose.
“It would be a shame to turn this (grant) down,” said Commissioner Bill Stangler, who represents Kasota Township where the park is located.
A motion was made and carried to accept the DNR grant.
• Larry Sycks gave the board an update on progress toward implementing a 800 mhz statewide ARMER radio system. Sycks is in the process of securing grant money to help pay for the project which is estimated to cost $3.9 million – not counting any local enhancements which may be needed.
Local fire departments and ambulance services have good grant sources to buy their equipment, Sycks said. He recommended the county buy all of the equipment and then work with cities on a lease or payback arrangement.
Sycks said in a best-case scenario, the expense to the county would be split 80 percent grant dollars and 20 percent county funds. The county could levy for the money or bond for the project.
The target date for implementing the new system is November, 2011. Sycks said a new communications tower is expected to be erected in Le Center in April.
• The board approved the payment of $3,994.99 to GovConnection to renew a one-year subscription to a web blocker and spam blocker for the courthouse and environmental services computer systems.
• The 2010 Board of Appeal and Equalization hearing has been scheduled for 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 12.
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