Park board hears about Jamestown Parks and Recreation's comprehensive plan for facilities
Apr. 16—JAMESTOWN — The Stutsman County Park Board could look at completing a comprehensive plan for its facilities and assets to find out what the community needs and wants.
Stutsman County Commissioner Jerry Bergquist said Tuesday, April 16, that the park board needs to look beyond just the Jamestown Reservoir land formerly owned by the Bureau of Reclamation if the board is going to review its master plan.
"We need to incorporate all those responsibilities that the park board has and find out from the public what they want us to do with those lands," he said.
During a public input meeting on April 3 on the Dakota Skies Outdoor Recreation Area project, Bergquist said he realized the park board didn't have a plan for its land.
"We need to somehow invest time and money on somehow putting a plan together," he said.
No action was taken on the suggestion.
Amy Walters, executive director of the Jamestown Parks and Recreation District, told the park board about the district putting together a comprehensive plan.
Berguist said having Walters talk about Jamestown Parks and Recreation District's process of getting a comprehensive plan might help the park board make a decision on how it should move forward with its master plan.
Walters said the comprehensive plan included a needs assessment, community-wide needs assessment survey, public input meetings, stakeholder focus group meetings, a strategic plan, review of the district's procedures and policies, program review and development, capital improvements and facility assessments.
Walters said the Jamestown Parks and Recreation District requested a 10-year comprehensive plan. She said $100,000 was budgeted for work on the plan.She said the district could have a finalized plan in June.Walters said the district's goals were to identify its current and future needs.
"We needed to get a better handle on what we actually have as we get frequent requests of adding new so making sure that we knew and understood and that became an entire assessment process so engineers and architects were involved," she said. "We did facility assessments on all of our assets so we know what is ahead of us as we're deciding on new projects and how we are allocating resources, both fiscal resources as well as staff resources."
Walters said the district got community input on what people wanted from Jamestown Parks and Recreation.
"Instead of Jamestown Parks and Recreation's plan, it becomes the community's plan," she said.
Walters said when the comprehensive plan is complete it will help the district's ability to apply for grant funds. She said she will know which grants to pursue based on the comprehensive plan.
The Stutsman County Commission unanimously approved a joint powers agreement between the city of Jamestown and the county for the use of the Stutsman County Law Enforcement Center.
Jessica Alonge, Stutsman County auditor/chief operating officer, said a committee of her, Bergquist, Stutsman County Sheriff Chad Kaiser, City Administrator Sarah Hellkeson, City Councilman David Steele and Scott Edinger, chief of police, worked on the agreement for over a year.
The Jamestown City Council could approve the agreement at its next meeting in May.Alonge said the city and the county entered into the joint powers agreement in 2005. She said the language in that agreement was outdated.
The joint powers agreement establishes and shares the rights, responsibilities and procedures for the operation and maintenance of the Stutsman County Law Enforcement Center, which is owned by the county. The agreement will be reviewed every two years.
The agreement renews annually unless the city or county terminates the agreement and provides a written notice of at least 12 months to the other party.
The total annual cost including utilities of the Law Enforcement Center operations is over $422,000, according to a cost summary. The city's share is about $117,000 and the county's is over $220,000. Other entities that contribute funds to the total annual cost include the Stutsman County Communications Center, North Dakota Highway Patrol, North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Stutsman County Narcotics Task Force.
Alonge said the county pays the costs and the city reimburses the county.
She said the costs were figured by how much square footage is used. She said the city also pays for other costs such as utilities and phone use.
In other business, the county commission:
* unanimously approved the appointments of primary election workers on June 11. She said the polling location at Medina is fully staffed. She said political parties have until May 22 to determine their workers for the primary election.
* heard an update from Alonge on the upcoming primary election. Alonge said voters need to make sure their ID has current addresses. She said voters can go to
to change their address. Alonge also said absentee ballot applications are now available at the Stutsman County Auditor's Office. Absentee ballots will be available on May 2.
