Park prepares for summer
Board looks at statue report, OKs ‘Picnic with the Pilots’By DAN FELDNER, Staff Writer dfeldner@minotdailynews.com
POSTED: May 21, 2008
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Jonathan Taggart, a conservator from Georgetown, Maine, examined the statue in late April. His first recommendation was to modify the masonry at the base of the statue.
The bronze base of the statue is currently partially covered by the masonry. Besides covering the name of sculptor A. Phimister Proctor and other information about the statue, Taggart said in his report that he is also worried about corrosion issues should the bronze base remain covered by stone.
The second recommendation would be to recast and reattach missing parts from the statue. The sword is currently in the possession of the park district, but several pieces of the reins are missing and would have to be recast.
The third recommendation was to have the statue cleaned and waxed to help preserve it.
Commissioner Ron Bieri said they should tackle the recommendations in that order, and said he believes the board’s first course of action should be to have the maintenance department dig up a section of masonry to see exactly what it would take to uncover the bronze base.
“There’s no great rush for us to do this, but I do think that we should start digging around in the masonry to find out what’s in there and find out how extensive a project that would be,” Bieri said.
One concern Steve Wharton of the horticulture department had was how work on the statue would affect his planting schedule. He said that if work was to go forward on the statue right away, there probably wouldn’t be any flowers ready in that area for the Fourth of July, the jazz festival and some weddings happening around that time. He would prefer if they could hold off until Labor Day.
Commissioner Bob Petry said all the work would have to be bid out, which would take some time.
“I don’t think that we’re going to be doing this until after September anyway, and the flowers will be coming out by then,” Petry said.
The park board decided to have park director Ron Merritt write a proposal, contingent upon board approval, calling for bids to recast and reattach the missing parts to the statue, as well as clean and wax it, while the maintenance department will look at what can be done with the masonry on the base.
In other business, Erv Johnson, president of the Souris River Botanical Conservatory, requested a collaboration between the park board and the conservatory to secure the Alan Kurth building across from Roosevelt Park Zoo so the Don Vitko cacti and succulent collection would have a place to be displayed publicly.
Johnson said they have looked at several locations over the years, and this is the one that seems the best fit. The conservatory would construct a greenhouse on the property while the main building would be used for office space, among other things. Other parts of the property would be landscaped into various types of gardens.
A second source of income could possibly be a children’s science museum located in the service bay, according to Johnson.
Johnson said that eventually the conservatory would hope to pick up the $12,000 annual payment for the property, as well as the $175,000 down payment.
Connie Feist, park board chairwoman, said a meeting at the property Monday night gave her more questions than answers, eight of which she wrote down. Among them were the projected maintenance costs for the park district and what the park district’s liability would be should the conservatory not be able to raise the money to cover the expenses of the project.
It was ultimately decided to move discussion on the collaboration back to committee so answers might be found for the many questions associated with the project.
Mary Muhlbradt of Trinity Health also appeared before the park board to discuss the “Picnic with the Pilots” event that will occur July 24 from 5 to 8 p.m. in the parking lot of Corbett Field. A new helicopter Trinity recently acquired will be on display, and the pilots will be on hand to answer any questions children or their parents might have.
Free hot dogs and pop will be available, and families will receive a coupon for $1 off admission to the zoo on July 24 or 25.
Since the event will happen during the North Dakota State Fair, public safety was discussed. The Minot Police Department was consulted regarding pedestrian safety on Burdick Expressway, and police officials said they believe the normal precautions taken during the State Fair were sufficient, according to Muhlbradt.
The park board approved a motion to allow Trinity Health to hold the event in the parking lot of Corbett Field.
The park board also decided to have the parks committee look at crafting a policy for memorial benches on park district property, looking at things such as what kind of material for the benches is acceptable, where they can be located, how many should be allowed and how long the park district is responsible for their care.
The board also accepted a bid from Tropic Craft in the amount of $16,543.10 for pool furniture for Roosevelt Park Pool. The commissioners are all quite excited about how the new facilities at the pool will be received by the public, and Feist noted later that the splash pad at Oak Park is already a hit.
“I ran tonight (Tuesday) before coming to the meeting and counted three kids on the playground, 10 kids in the water,” she said. “They love it.”
