Park Board plans site reclassifications to meet Regional Designation requirements

Since being awarded a regional significant designation from the Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission (GMRPTC) earlier this spring, the Grand Marais Park Board has begun discussing the first steps of implementing the new master plan.

During the Nov. 7 meeting, the park board discussed the regional significant designation requirements. One requirement is that the recreation park must offer 20% or less of the reservable sites as seasonal to qualify for state funding. Parks Manager Dave Tersteeg said that of the 296 sites in the recreation park, currently, 90 are seasonal. Since it equates to approximately 30%, Tersteeg said the recreation park would need to reclassify 31 seasonal sites into overnight sites to meet the 20% threshold.

Tersteeg said although the seasonal sites must be reclassified, there is no deadline by which that needs to take place. The current seasonal recreation park regulars are welcome to keep seasonally renting their sites, but Tersteeg said that as soon as someone vacates the site and does not return, the site will transition to an overnight site.

WTIP’s Kalli Hawkins spoke with Parks Manager Dave Tersteeg about reclassifying seasonal sites, recreation park revenue, winter prep tasks, and more. The audio from the interview is below.

Kalli Hawkins November 23, 2024