Quarry Park Passes Available for Checkout at Area Libraries

(KNSI) – The Great River Regional Library is offering a new item to check out with a library card: a parking pass.

The Stearns County park passes can be checked out for up to seven days to be used for free parking at Quarry Park and Nature Preserve. Patron services specialist Beth Ringsmuth Stolpman says each library branch in Stearns County has two passes available for checkout at a time.

“These are not able to be reserved or placed on hold,” Ringsmuth Stolpman said. “They’re a first-come, first-serve kind of situation. Patrons just need a library card, which is free and very easy to get.”

Ringsmuth Stolpman says the goal of the park pass program — a collaboration between GRRL and the Stearns County Parks Department — is to expand access to Quarry Park.

“They do offer day passes and an annual pass [at the park], but there is a fee involved in that, and we know that can be a barrier for some people,” Ringsmuth Stolpman said. “Quarry Park has a lot to offer; they have swimming and fishing, and you can hike. … Just being able to access that without a cost involved, I would say that’s the primary goal of this.”

A secondary goal, she says, is to bring awareness to all the various parks around the county that are free to visit.

The park pass program comes as the Great River Regional Library starts to resume in-person activities through the late summer.

“There’s just so much out there, if people visit our events calendar, they’re going to be pretty blown away, I think, by what we have,” said Ringsmuth Stolpman.

Ringsmuth Stolpman says a person who played a major role in bringing about the parks passes is the Stearns County Parks Department’s Sarah Weed.

“She reached out to one of our branches, our Waite Park library, back in April and just said ‘Hey, we’re thinking about offering passes. We want to think about a partnership with the libraries. How can we make this happen?'” she said. “And, I mean, it’s July, so you can tell how fast that came together. I think it’s a testament to her dedication and to the library’s commitment to expanding access to things like this.”

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