St. Cloud Approves Hires Designers for Improvements To Three City Parks

(KNSI) – St. Cloud approved hiring a design team for upgrades to three neighborhood parks.

At Monday’s meeting, the council approved a $325,578 contract with Stantec Consulting Services in St. Cloud for plans to change and make improvements to 1010, Centennial and Haws Parks. Facilities Director Scott Zlotnick explained what happens after the city gets the concepts. “We use these designs and take them to those neighborhoods in near those parks. And we invite people to an input meeting. So, we show the potential improvements. In these cases, we’re looking at splash pad improvements, as well as other park improvements.”

Zlotnick explained they would hold neighborhood meetings. “All of the parks that we’re talking about are neighborhood parks. So, typically, we would buffer the park by 500 feet. And we would send mailers to all of the individual residents within that buffer. And then what we would do is, we would market it on our social media sites and web pages as an open meeting for people to come and say what they would like to say or provide input.”

The idea is to convert the wading pools to splash pads at Centennial Park and Haws Park. Other potential improvements at Centennial Park include upgrades to the hockey rink, replacement of the playground sand and border, new bathrooms, a new concrete sidewalk connecting site amenities, and better lighting. Haws Park could also get upgrades to its hockey rink, a new basketball court, and a renovated parking lot. Plans include adding a splash pad to 1010 Park and a new basketball court and brightening the park with new lighting. All the work is estimated at $4.5 million.

The meetings will be held in the late winter or early spring of 2024. Zlotnick says the three parks will be the first to be funded with the levy expenditures approved in November of 2022 by city voters. St. Cloud intends to spend $20 million over the next three years to upgrade its neighborhood parks. Property taxes are covering the levy and will be paid back over an estimated 20 years.

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