Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By ZACHARY MARANO
Ironwood — The city of Ironwood’s parks and recreation committee approved its goals moving into 2022 and beyond on Monday.
The goals identified on the agenda were opening a cemetery historical walk, updating their forest management plan, continuing to improve volunteer coordination with the Ironwood Area Chamber of Commerce and opening a lighted ski trail in Miners Memorial Heritage Park.
The committee also approved two more goals that they discussed during the meeting: adding more pickleball and tennis courts in public areas and upgrading the campsites in Curry Park.
In addition to requesting the committee to approve these goals, Director of Community Development Tom Bergman asked to recommend to the City Commission to move forward with the application for a Michigan Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund grant for the lighted ski trail, because they are approaching the end of the grant cycle.
The board approved Bergman’s request and the item will be discussed for possible action at the city commission’s next meeting on Monday.
Bergman said that he has been looking at aerial photos of the park with City Manager Scott Erickson to estimate the number of lights they would need for a mile-long trail in the park. Accounting for the fact they might need more lights because they don’t know exactly where they’ll place them yet, Bergman said they should budget for 25 lights.
He added that costs could increase as they add more features, such as an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant parking area and viewing platform, to gain additional points on the application.
Bergman said he has been watching the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing and noticed there are adaptive ski sleds for people with disabilities. This gave him the idea to purchase one and make it available to the public. He noted that universal design features are very important for securing grant funding.
Bergman suggested that the city come up with 30% match for the grant rather than the traditional 26%, because of the additional points they receive as a low- to moderate-income community. He said that some of this grant can come from in-kind labor and tools. He plans to talk to the city commission about coming up with this match.
The previous meeting in January was attended by resident Colleen Kichak, who asked the committee to add additional courts for her pickleball group. Kichak repeated her request at Monday’s meeting. She said she visited Patterson Park with the measurements for a pickleball court and found they could accommodate two of these courts.
“It’s a growing sport and I think it would be a fairly good addition to our city,” Kichak said.
Parks and recreation committee chair Sam Davey said this would be a good additional to their goals. Davey said that he communicated with Annette Burchell of the Downtown Ironwood Development Authority prior to Monday’s meeting. Burchell said she would be in favor of this, but the city should add another tennis court for a total of three pickleball and three tennis courts.
However, Bergman said it is unlikely that pickleball courts will be added in 2022. He said this was a $40,000 to $50,000 project and they are accepting bids on their summer projects already. Furthermore, they won’t be able to apply for grant funding from foundations such as the Gogebic Range Health Foundation until the fall. He said they will start planning this year and the project will probably be completed in 2023.