ALEXANDRIA — Kids will soon have a new way to play at Noonan Park.
At its Monday night meeting, the Alexandria City Council accepted a bid to purchase and install a new playground system from Landscape Structure/Flagship Recreation of at a cost of $161,960. The installation will take place this September or October. The new playground will be built on the east side of Nokomis Street. climber for teenager
The recommendation came from the city’s Park Board, which has been busy working on projects that were in a Parks and Trails Master Plan about a year ago.
The board and the public identified Noonan Park as the park that needed the most attention.
The color scheme of the playground – yellow, red and black – plays off the colors from the “duck house” on the main side of the park. It will include accessibility and the playground will emphasize inclusiveness, according to Bill Thoennes, park department director.
The existing playground was installed in 1996 for $14,000 and has served the community well for almost 30 years, Thoennes said. The old system will be removed by park staff. The existing swing set, springs animals and a merry-go-round will be used in other parks.
The project will be funded through the city’s Park Development Fund, which has a cash balance of $266,378.
In a memo to the council, Thoennes said community partnerships played a key role in the Noonan Park improvements.
“Over the years, many service clubs, youth organizations and other groups have worked to raise funds for park improvements,” Thoennes said. “With the Park Master Plan in place, the city now has a blueprint of projects from which these groups can raise funds and then work cooperatively with the city to see them to completion.”
Next year, a walking trail may be installed around the pond in Noonan park and a shelter may be replaced.
Alexandria Police Chief Scott Kent introduced his department’s new Community Service Officer, Corey Enberg.
Enberg and his wife moved to Alexandria a couple of months ago after living in Montevideo for nine years. Enberg told the council that he was a math teacher and coach for 17 years and was excited to be in the area, working with young people and veterans.
Kent noted that he received 78 applications for the CSO position and he was proud to have hired Enberg for the job.
Kent also introduced the council to two part-time interns who will help lift some of the day-to-day burdens from his officers. The interns are Conner Stein and Camden Terwey. They are both going through their second year in the Alexandria Technical and Community College's law enforcement program. They both said they were looking forward to working with Alexandria officers and perhaps returning to the department in the future.
They will be working at special events, helping with crowd control, parking lot fender-benders, doing business checks, writing parking citations, returning found property and what seems to be a rite of passage — rescuing ducklings that fall into the storm water system.
On a 3-2 vote, the council gave preliminary support to establishing a moratorium on residents planning to install boat houses, gazebos, screen houses, fish houses, pump houses and detached decks on shoreland property for up to one year.
Representatives of the Douglas County Lake Association made the request in order to study the long-term effects of these water-oriented structures. “Because the structures are allowed so close to the water, within 10 feet of the high-water mark, these structures pose a direct threat to the lakes,” said Attorney Paul McCarten in a letter to the city planner. “Lakeshore development is the single biggest concern for lake pollution in our system.”
Right now, the structures are allowed as a conditional use and are subject to the relevant city code and state shoreland rules.
If given final approval at a later date, the ordinance would establish a moratorium period to allow the study, set the framework and time period for the study, and provide exceptions for existing or already permitted structures. The study could recommend not taking any action regarding water-oriented accessory structures, setting up stricter rules, or not allowing them at all.
Council members Andrew Wiener, Nicole Mace and Scott Allen supported the moratorium while Bill Franzen and Roger Thalman voted against it.
The study would be conducted by city staff and the Planning Commission and would be completed within one year.
City Planner Mike Weber said the city has received just two requests for the structures in the past 15 years.
Two 2014 Zamboni ice resurfacers will be smoothing the arenas at the Runestone Community Center this fall.
The council authorized RCC Manager Vinnie Hennen to purchase the gas-powered Zambonis for $70,000 from Arena Warehouse.
The RCC has three used Zambonis from 2002, 2009 and 2013. The last time the city purchased a resurfacer was in 2019 when it bought a 2013 model. The cost at that time was $65,000.
The 2014 models each have between 1,400 and 1,500 hours of use – much less than the existing used models, which range in hours from 3,157 to 6,403, according to Hennen.
City staff reviewed an electric option resurfacer, which would cost about $97,000. The advantages are that it would not use LP gas and so there would be no air testing. The disadvantage, however, is that the battery would have to be replaced every five or six years at a cost of $10,000. There is also a cost to maintain an electric unit – the batteries need to be charged almost daily.
City staff determined that a gas machine is easier to maintain and that it would give the RCC better performance.
The council issued a special event permit to the Alexandria Elks Lodge to hold an “Elks Fun Run” on Saturday, June 22 from noon to 5:30 p.m.
It’s a car and motorcycle fun run with proceeds going to veterans. Stops will be made at Sidewalks Bar in West Union, CB’s Bar in Meier Grove, Woody’s in Greenwald, Bucky’s Bar in Elrosa, the Sportsman’s Den in Lake Henry, and Muddy Boot Bar in Forada. Pre-registration is available at each location.
park gym equipment The event will start at the Elks Lodge at 115 15th Ave. W and police will help the participants cross Broadway at 15th Avenue and then proceed to the Depot Smokehouse.