[Music] hi I'm council member Justin Olsen for this month's Cottage Grove City Council update and joining me today is the Park and Recreation director for the city of Cottage Grove Zach doctor Zach thanks for being here today thanks for having appreciate it we are here today at Hamlet Park to have a conversation about some of the cool things we've got going on in our Park system and Zach is obviously the perfect person to talk to about that so Zach one of the questions that I always hear from residents is how many parks do we have how much Park and trail space do we have how much green space do we have do you have some answers for them sure do uh Justin we have 38 parks in kaj Gro but they come in all sorts of different sizes and shapes but when you add it all up we have almost 2,000 acres of public park and open space as a matter of fact there's a national program called the 10-minute walk program the goal is to make sure that every resident in the United States of America has a a park within a 10-minute walk of their house I see and I don't know the exact data on ctage Grove but I can tell you that we always rank very highly so um that's something we're very proud about and I think that our leaders have made a dedicated commitment to Bringing Parks and Recreation to cage Grove for years and generations and and we hope to continue to do that moving forward one of the other things that's kind of neat about our Park system is you know we get a lot of use from out of town visitors I know know that we have various tournaments and events that take place maybe you can tell us a little bit about some of the things that go on each year that our residents may not necessarily know about sure you're right our facilities are very welld designed and maintained very well which allows us to host a lot of large events and tournaments and sporting programs and things like that you might recall Justin that we did an economic impact study about four years ago we did yes um which was really neat and what that did is it studied all the sport programs in cage Grove what it told us was that over 4 million dollar of economic activity comes from just hosting sporting events in cage grow so that's people coming into cage grow and maybe they're playing a game on a Tuesday night or they're here for the weekend and staying in a hotel and they're going out to eat and doing things like that so um I thought that was a really neat study and it shows that there's real money in these programs that we put on it matters to the community on many different levels not just for the people that are using it but it also helps the economic activity of the community so that's very exciting news I also know that we get a lot of rentals down at River Oaks we have our Ice Arena but people may not know that they can also rent park space here in the city of colage Grove how do they do that and what sorts of events can they uh utilize that space for sure um you know we build these facilities so let people use them I think that's what we want people to know the most so I think the most important thing is um if if people are interested they go on the website find out what facilities they need or if they have questions just give us a call and we'll walk you through what's the best size facility for you U make sure the weekend's available and then make sure that from front to back that you're taking care of it's great to hear that people can just reach out and you can help guide them towards what they need to do now in November this year uh the city of Cottage Grove is asking residents to vote on a local option sales tax to actually help enhance some of our Park facilities including the one right here at Hamlet Park where we are today so I know there's lots of questions about there people hear that word tax and they may not necessarily understand what a local option sales tax is very common and lots of other communities maybe you can share a little bit to help uh answer some of those questions that people have about what this might be and how it would be used if it should pass in November certainly so it's called The Preserve play Prosper plan and before I even start I'm always trying to get people to go to the website because the website is just very informative has a lot of detail answers almost every question that people might have to summarize there's three projects there's Hamlet Park project there's Mississippi Dunes Park project and and then there's the River Oaks project the first project reinvest to Hamlet Park which we're at here today it's our oldest and largest park but it does have some Asian facilities that need to be upgraded the plan would replace the playground it would replace the park building that's there from the 1970s it would actually upgrade the skateboard park and also expands recreational opportunities that maybe aren't here today like a synthetic outdoor turf field adding outdoor art installing a small splash pad and then improving Landscaping features and then finishing the last two baseball fields at the South End of the complex which um we've owned that land since 2002 so um the second project is the new 30 acre Park uh called Mississippi Dunes you and I and then many other council members before you and staff before me have heard about the need for public access on the Mississippi River we have more shoreline than any other community but we have a lack of public access to it so we have acquired through grants over 30 Acres of property down there on the shoreline very excited for that but we also want to build the park down there so that people are able to use it in the best way possible so to achieve that dream the plan calls for a small boat launch nature themed playground an interpretive Center lots of picnicking areas outdoor classrooms fishing pier uh lotss of walking and hiking trails tons of habitat restoration work which connects to uh over 250 Acres of the great CL June scientific Natural Area all encompassing that's over 280 Acres of Park and open space at that site down there so very excited about that project and then the final project River Oaks is definitely a point of Pride for Cottage Grove and what this project does it tries to get more people down there using it in different ways so you're not going to hear a lot about golf in here but there's a Himalayan putting green which is meant to be more of a competitive putting green but it's also familyfriendly just a different way to to putt around and that's free for public to use uh but then also at River Oaks we'll be putting in multiports simulators so lots of fun things to do there uh we'd be adding a fat tire bicycle course which could also be used for like cross country running as well so taking that property and using that in a little bit different way uh we'd be adding a pickle ball courts that would be very exciting cuz we could do small tournaments or Championship type style tournaments at a really high-end facility but then that Court could also be used for for different events it could be for a small band concert it could be for a wedding or whatever else might be so and then General improvements to the building connecting those two buildings that are separate right now and then improving the the patio space so those are the three projects and one of the things I always like to make sure is I want I want residents to know that this was not a knee-jerk reaction we spent a lot of time studying what people want in kaj grov so you might remember we did the reimagining recreation Sur remember that yes which we went out in the community and asked them what they wanted in Recreation cage grow and we developed this long list of things that people want we tried to take all those projects and and piece them into these three different projects so okay um it's an effort for us to try to give the the residents an opportunity to vote on what they want in their parks and um come November it's up to them to to vote how they want to vote and see see where it goes and again I would encourage people to go on to the site because all the financial implications are on there all the project information and any any other questions they might have and and as always I'm an email or a phone call away sure I'm sure you are too I am I'm always available yes happy to get the facts out because we just want people to be educated when they go to the polls and the website is preserve playay prosper. org okay great one thing too about the local option sales tax that I think is interesting is when the projects are paid for the sales tax goes away Bingo right so it's not a NeverEnding thing Bingo great well Zack thank you so much for joining me today at Hamlet Park it's one of my favorite places appreciate you sharing everything today with the uh residents of Cottage Grove about a preserve plate Prosper plan thanks again thanks Justin for this month's Council update I am council member Justin Olsen and we will see you next time [Music]