Miners Park adding new maintenance facility

IRONWOOD - Work started Tuesday with preparing the site where a maintenance facility will be placed at Miners Memorial Heritage Park in Ironwood. 

The project, made possible by the Friends of Miners Memorial Heritage Park, along with the private and business donations of cash, equipment, materials or labor, will provide for a heated building for storing trail maintenance equipment, according to a press announcement. The 900-square foot garage is from the Davey's Motel in Ironwood that is currently being razed for future redevelopment and was donated by owners Sam and Anne Davey. 

"We're excited to have this opportunity to contribute to the Miners Memorial Heritage Park," said Sam Davey, who also serves as chair of the city parks and recreation committee, and the city planning commission. "This park has evolved into one of the most popular spots in town both for locals and visitors."

Prior to moving the garage to the site location in the park the ground had to be prepared for a concrete foundation. This effort involved city equipment, equipment from ABR Trails, Inc., and concrete work by Angelo Luppino Inc.

Eric Anderson and Angela Santini, owners of ABR Trails, Inc., provided their migratory compactor and a bulldozer to prepare the sand bed for the foundation on Tuesday. The couple are excited to see Miners Park take the next step up with the groomer garage.

"That's kind of what motivated us to help out," Anderson said. "We're all kind of in this together. We like to see the skiing continue to improve area-wide and not just for our place."

Anderson also provided a dump truck to assist the city dump truck that hauled in sand on Tuesday morning for the foundation work. 

"It's kind of a team effort," Anderson said. "It's a city park so it all works out."

Miners Park is a recreational area with 14 kilometers of hiking, skiing and biking trails within the 165-acre park on the site of a former iron ore mining location. Since 2010 the park trail system has expanded with a mountain bike trail planned to be completed in 2022.

That space is large enough to provide for an adequate multipurpose trail system, Erickson said. As a city park it is accessible to people who would not otherwise drive to another location to ski or exercise, he said.

Anderson said he was pleased that the Miners Park garage is large enough and with a large enough door to eventually house a PistenBully (tracked groomer with blade and power tiller). He said ABR Trails started 25 years ago with a drag-sled groomer pulled by an old snowmobile just as Miners Park. Today, he has two PistenBully groomers. 

The Friends of Miners Park have been exploring ways to fund a heated facility that would store a growing inventory of grooming equipment and mowers, according to a press release. This is the next step in development of the park and as things progress he expects that the Friends of the Park will purchase larger tracked groomers like a PistenBully. 

"With the right fundraising I think they could probably pull off a new one," Anderson said.

The project is also possible with help from Sisu Ski Fest, which uses the park as part of its annual cross country ski race. The park expansion will also include connector trails to the Iron Belle Trail.

The Friends group has launched a $20,000 fundraising campaign to cover its share of the project. To donate, visit gofundme.com and enter the search term, "Help Ironwood Miners Park with new groomer garage."

"This has all come together pretty quickly for us and now the challenge is raising money so we can prepare the site and get the garage moved over the next few weeks," said Rick Semo, president of the Friends of Miners Park, in the announcement.