Quickies: Comment on Park District fitness center; water sales are brisk
* I'm a day late on this link to Ryan Bakken's story about the Park District efforts to build a new fitness center. But I figured y'all would appreciate the opportunity to comment. The main story is here. The sidebar is here.
* Grand Forks Public Works director Todd Feland said the dry weather is, in an odd way, good for his department. Most of the costs of pumping and treating water are fixed, he said, so additional usage of water doesn't add much more to expense. On the other hand, it adds a lot more to revenues. The city doesn't want to max out capacity, he said, but getting close means the system is operating at peak efficiency. End result: Public works is getting more cash than usual.
More on this later when I interview Feland more in-depth. (Note to WDAZ: You think my story ideas are so lame, so don't take them, OK?)
* Grand Forks City Council members elected new officers today. Council President Hal Gershman got another term and the council's grand old man Eliot Glassheim was voted vice president. He replaces another grand old man, Gerald Hamerlik, who retired from public office last month.
The council's two big policy geeks, Council members Doug Christensen and Curt Kruen got chairmanship, respectively, of the Finance-Development Standby Committee and the Service-Safety Committee.
The council will figure out who else sits on the committees next week.
(Note: "Old man" and "geek" used affectionately here.)
* What a grand discussion we all hadhear here when the Alerus Center last came up. Get ready for more after the center's commission meets this Wednesday to talk about the budget. The fun begins at 6:30 a.m. with a finance committee meeting followed by a two hour commission meeting. I for one am stoked.
* Council member Mike "Mac" McNamara, back from Iraq in less than 60 days, wished his wife Susan and daughter Katherine happy birthdays.
* City Council must've broken a record today. It was over in less than 30 minutes.
* Got an e-mail from a friend about this block party starting at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday at Town Square in Grand Forks. JLG Architects is organizing it with other sponsors. There will be one every Thursday after that until Aug. 24. What a perfect compliment to summer.
* What the ding-dong happened to the My Grand Forks blog? Something screwy going on. Disappeared without a trace.
Update 8:14 p.m., 7/18/06: Bummer! JGS says he's been too busy to work much on the blog so it's gone.
* Grand Forks Public Works director Todd Feland said the dry weather is, in an odd way, good for his department. Most of the costs of pumping and treating water are fixed, he said, so additional usage of water doesn't add much more to expense. On the other hand, it adds a lot more to revenues. The city doesn't want to max out capacity, he said, but getting close means the system is operating at peak efficiency. End result: Public works is getting more cash than usual.
More on this later when I interview Feland more in-depth. (Note to WDAZ: You think my story ideas are so lame, so don't take them, OK?)
* Grand Forks City Council members elected new officers today. Council President Hal Gershman got another term and the council's grand old man Eliot Glassheim was voted vice president. He replaces another grand old man, Gerald Hamerlik, who retired from public office last month.
The council's two big policy geeks, Council members Doug Christensen and Curt Kruen got chairmanship, respectively, of the Finance-Development Standby Committee and the Service-Safety Committee.
The council will figure out who else sits on the committees next week.
(Note: "Old man" and "geek" used affectionately here.)
* What a grand discussion we all had
* Council member Mike "Mac" McNamara, back from Iraq in less than 60 days, wished his wife Susan and daughter Katherine happy birthdays.
* City Council must've broken a record today. It was over in less than 30 minutes.
* Got an e-mail from a friend about this block party starting at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday at Town Square in Grand Forks. JLG Architects is organizing it with other sponsors. There will be one every Thursday after that until Aug. 24. What a perfect compliment to summer.
* What the ding-dong happened to the My Grand Forks blog? Something screwy going on. Disappeared without a trace.
Update 8:14 p.m., 7/18/06: Bummer! JGS says he's been too busy to work much on the blog so it's gone.
Hey Tran,Well, hope nobody else goes anywhere. We got a good thing going on here. See you around, JGS.
I closed down my blog due to not having much time to write anything. I feel the City Beat and GFL [Grand Forks Life blog. - Ed.] cover the main topics around town. I will continue to read all the blogs, post and voice my opinion. You might see My Grand Forks in the near future or a different name, who knows. Until then, keep on blogging.
JGS
posted by Tu-Uyen at 7:40 PM
15 Comments:
T Ran said, "* What a grand discussion we all had hear when the Alerus Center last came up.
Glad too sea that IM knot the Owen Lee won who makes miss takes that spell czech Mrs.
I really wanted to let it go, but, ya know. Have a great day at the Herald :)
And what about CoffeeGuy and Another GF Blog? That's been down for about a week. Any info?
Bubba: Spelling error fixed. Won't happen again. Pretty good so far for a guy that doesn't use spell check.
I emailed the owner of My Grand Forks, but haven't received a response.
Mysterious indeed.
Pretty good so far for a guy that doesn't use spell check.
Although spell check wouldn't have caught that one anyway :-)
If the market works its magic, I would venture a guess that we'll end up with exactly one more fitness center than we need in GF. That will ensure nobody quite profits enough to make ends meet. Thanks Park District!
Why so much money to throw at a fitness center, and we can't have another outdoor pool for the kids in summer? Just throwing the question out there.
When the P.D. decides to build a new center, then what do we do with the building that (I assume) the city owns now? Lord knows that they will not use the same location.
That's a good point. Maybe they'll build an indoor pool/water park there. Haha. Just joking.
I, for one, would love to see a self-supported community/fitness center.
There's no decent fitness club in town right now. I imagine the UND Wellness Center will be state-of-the-art, but won't be open to the community.
And I would hope GF schools could make good use of the old Center Court.
This type of enterprise should be private I guess, but when it comes to public health I can argue that it's acceptable for a community entity to step forward.
Yet the park district has washed their hands of Riverside Park, and says it is just not affordable to operate anymore. "Park" District?
Again, the Park District, City, and School District are COMPLETELY SEPARATE entities. Why would you assume the city owns the Center Court Building? If the Park District were to close Center Court, the city, School District would have to purchase or rent the building to use it, just like you or I.
The Park District is not abandoning Riverside Park. They divested themselves of Riverside Pool. The pool is susceptible to flood damage, was shaky from a business perspective, and they got a sum of federal money ($800k?) to turn it over to the flood control project. They are not abandoning the park, however. There are plans to re-open the park when that stage of the levee construction is completed.
What Anonymous (the latest one) said is true.
The Park District did turn over Riverside Park to the city for dike construction. So what happens to the pool there is really in the city's hands and the city is studying whether re-opening the pool is financially viable.
The $800k the Park District got, by the way, was meant to build a new water facility for the north end.
The district does not favor a pool at Riverside because, having earlier done a study of its own, it is convinced the pool will be very costly to run because it's prone to flooding.
But besides the data, there is a belief at the district that pools are sort of passe. That's why there's been a push for more splash parks (such as the one at University Park, which sorta counts as the north end) and that water park (which Canad is now building with its own money).
I think this belief is why, despite the unfavorable financial projections for the Riverside Pool, many people feel the district is abandoning Riverside. (Yes, it will re-open after dikes are done, but it will not be the same park without a pool. There's a lot of childhood memories tied up in that pool.) The City Council is doing its own research because it doesn't seem to trust the district's numbers either. From this point of view, the district will do anything to get out of re-opening the pool.
Even though the district's big fear is the pool will bleed money and require massive subsidies, that would actually be a city worry now that the pool is owned by the city.
I think the biggest stake the district has is in how the remainder of that $800k -- there's maybe $500k left now after the splash park was built -- is spent. Will it go to splash parks that the district wants to build or will it go to what the district sees as a financially-doomed pool? That much money only comes around once in a while.
Thanks Tu-uyen...my apologies to the Park District for the rush to judgement.
Is the city saying they're getting out of the pool business to help drive business to the waterpark at The 'Nad?
Great site loved it alot, will come back and visit again.
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