The Isanti City Council batted around the idea of repairing items around its parks for a good chunk of its Tuesday, April 16, meeting.
Stephanie Hillesheim, the city’s community development director, presented a report created by Julia Cederberg, the park and recreation coordinator, that outlined some park equipment that needs repair.
The problem? The Parks and Recreation Department’s 2024 allocated budget for repairs, maintenance of machinery and equipment is $9,500 – and only $1,720.19 remains after several repairs have already been completed.
After an inspection of the parks by staff, the skate park at Bluebird Park needs maintenance of all of its structures, with the “middle” section needing immediate attention.
Repair of the middle section only is expected to cost $7,000 while repair of all structures will cost $15,000.
“It was up for [Capital Improvement Plan] for 2024 in the amount of $29,851 budgeted for repairs,” Hillesheim said. The report noted that those repairs were pushed back to 2025.
Chute slides at Clifford Park need to be replaced because they have cracks in the slides. This also was in the CIP for 2024 in the amount of $29,374 but also was pushed back to 2025.
And at Rum River Meadows, the green tube on the large playground equipment is cracked where the bolt connects to the plastic. This was set for repair in 2025, but that was pushed back to 2026.
Finally, the targets in the archery range are in need of replacements at a total cost of $1,814.90 for five outdoor targets and five outdoor XXL targets.
Several council members asked if the repairs could be paid for from park dedication funds; city staff explained that those monies cannot be used for repairs.
“If we were to make repairs to parts of the skate park, that’s considered maintenance and repair,” City Administrator Josi Wood said. “If we were to replace the equipment in the skate park, then you can use park dedication funds.
“That is something new added to the park.”
Several council members asked city staff for a look at the cost of replacement items rather than repair in the hopes of using park dedication funds.
“I think the consensus is to move forward on Rum River Meadows, the archery targets, and the yellow tube [at Bluebird Park],” Mayor Jimmy Gordon said. “Clifford Park and the skate park we should wait on to get a look at total replacement costs.”
GIS system
The city’s geographic information system (GIS) currently is hosted by Bolton & Menk, the Minneapolis company that provides engineering services to the city.
But the Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc., the company that created the GIS software, will no longer allow companies to share the software.
That means the city of Isanti will need to host its own GIS.
“The benefits is of doing so is that we’ll have a staff person who can use the GIS, so we will be able to make our own maps internally,” Wood said. “That will save costs as well as turn-around time.”
She noted that there will be cost of internal migration of the GIS is to not exceed $10,000 with funding to come from the engineering budget.
Council member Luke Merrill opposed the migration, noting that his family had suffered when an error in GIS plotting in 2004 led to problems that resulted in three months without sewer service.
“When you have someone who’s not an engineer trying to plot and do these things, I think that’s a horrible idea,” he said.
Eventually the motion carried 4-1, with Merrill the lone opponent.
Johnson’s Meadows narrowly approved
City council narrowly approved the development agreement for Phase 1 of Johnson’s Meadows, which will eventually create 43 housing lots. The approval vote was 3-2, with council members Jeff Holmgren and Merrill opposed.
Fire calls down
Fire Chief Alan Jankovich presented the 2023 Fire District’s Annual Report, which included an interesting statistic that showed a run volume of 536 last year.
That number is down 57% from the previous year and is the lowest total since 2014, the earliest year where numbers were provided.
“That is because of our new response protocol,” Jankovich said. “We are responding to critical calls, but we are not responding to minor medicals.”
Merrill asked if there had been any community complaints with the change.
“There has been pushback, but I can’t think of a resident or patient that has shown concern or pushback,” Jankovich said. “When you have change, you know there will be somebody somewhere who does not approve.”
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