Mitchell Parks Department studies donor policy

Talk about it

The Mitchell Parks and Recreation Department is considering creating a policy to recognize donors and perhaps encourage more donations.

Department Director Dusty Rodiek said he wants to have a clear policy in place, or at least find out if the Park and Recreation Board wants to adopt one. Right now, there is nothing to guide the city on what deserves recognition, he said.

“There are some precedents out there,” Rodiek said during a Tuesday night board meeting at the Recreation Center. “I really didn’t see any written policy.”

He said there are no major donors currently seeking to make gifts to the Parks and Recreation Department, but he wanted to discuss it with the board at this time.

“Just kind of wanted to bring it up,” he said. “Just give me your thoughts. It’s just in order to provide consistency. We’ve been blessed with generous donors in the past in this department. I just want to make sure we’re recognizing our donors properly.”

In other news from the meeting:

* A new playground for Hitchcock Park is planned for 2012, Rodiek said.

He is a member of the Mitchell Area Council for People With Disabilities board and said his plan is to place a safety-designed rubberized surface beneath the playground if grant money and donations can be obtained to help pay for it.

* The board voted to endorse a proposal by the Mitchell Men’s Softball Association to add two sets of playground equipment at the Cadwell Sports Complex softball fields.

President Aaron Klinger, board member Alan Ridgway and adult softball umpiring chief Dennis Thompson said adding the equipment is part of an effort to improve the complex, in part in hopes of landing state and perhaps national tournaments. The association sold its beer license last year and will use the money for improvements at the complex, the softball officials said.

The playground sets, which would include swings, a slide and other recreational equipment, would cost $41,800 for two, with other expenses, including netting above them to prevent softballs from flying in, and sand.

The softball association will ask the City Council to split the cost for the project, with both kicking in between $22,000 and $23,000.

Adding the playground equipment would be part of improvements at the fields. The city is replacing the dugouts at the complex. The last remaining old dugout was ripped out Tuesday. Once concrete is poured and cured, work on installing the new ones will commence.

* The notice for an operator for the city campground has been published and a pair of inquiries have come in, Rodiek said. The deadline for bids for the lease is Nov. 22.

“We’ll know more then,” he said.

* Work on the city’s first dog park is moving ahead, Rodiek told the board.

The park will have a 2.3-acres area for large dogs and a separate 0.75-acre area for smaller dogs. It will feature water stations for the dogs and drinking facilities for people as well. The location is in a city-owned lot near the Cadwell softball fields.

Rodiek said he has studied other dog parks online and has visited Sioux Falls dog parks, where he has asked users what they like about the parks.

* Two recreation areas by Lake Mitchell, Sportsmen’s and the Day Camp, need upgrades to appear more attractive, he said, and spur more rentals. They have 6-foot-high chain link fences.

“Both of those look like you’re renting the penitentiary,” Rodiek said.

He was told the fences were erected to keep vandals out.

“There are other ways to combat vandalism,” he said. “Lighting is a good one to start with. And we’re going to have neighbors out there.”

* Work will be done to correct a problem at the public beach at Lake Mitchell, which slopes so sharply that is difficult to keep sand on, Rodiek said.

The city is considering making it two-layered, perhaps with grass on the top and sand at the lower level with a gentler slope to it. That won’t happen until next year, he said.

* Parks workers will start putting up Christmas lights next week, he said.

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