City makes progress on parks plan

Although last Wednesday’s community meeting on the Cloquet Master Parks Plan attracted just over 30 people, Caleb Peterson said the quality of the participation made up for low numbers.

“Those that were there were very engaged and participating,” said the assistant city engineer who oversees the city parks. “I think that was even more important than having a huge turnout.”

Much of the meeting time was dedicated to small-group

discussions that were reported to the larger group near the end of the meeting.

Peterson said new (to him) ideas included a climbing wall in Veterans Park and a zip line and/or a new chalet complex at Pine Valley. Discussions also included more familiar ideas and needs, including a skate park and more athletic fields, particularly at Hilltop, where the soccer fields are often booked solid in the fall with league and high school soccer games and practices, along with FDLTCC football practices.

Connectivity – or the lack thereof – was a consistent theme.

“I think we heard about trails and connectivity – whether it be sidewalks or bike trails – from every group,” Peterson said. “It sounds like that might be a focus point so far.”

Members of the Parks Master Plan Task Force were named at Tuesday’s Cloquet City Council meeting. Those include the following Cloquet residents: John Badger, Tom Urbanski, Rick Norrgard, Kevin Robertson, Jeff Leno, Rick Stowell, Holly Peterson, Jenny Blatchford, Charlotte Henning, Brady Slater, Dennis Painter, Tom Brenner, John Sanders, Jon Waugh, Tim Krohn, Daniel Tarr, Ken Ripp, Scott Blatchford, Joe Nowak, Barb Wyman, Mark Roberts and Dave Manderfeld.

Miss the meeting?

The city of Cloquet is asking for resident input on the development of the long-term Master Parks Plan. The internet savvy can complete an online survey located at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ CloquetParksRecMPSurvey.

Survey questions will also be printed in a future issue of the Pine Journal.

Tags: parks plan, news, updates