The MAYSA Arena is located in the upper left of this schematic of improvements planned adjacent to the facility. The solid brown line marks the layout for a frisbee golf course and the yellow dotted line will be a cross-country running and mountain bike trail.

Minot residents and visitors to the city will soon have more options to choose from for outdoor activities. Minot Parks expects to complete work this year on a frisbee golf course, mountain biking trail and cross-country running trail adjacent to the MAYSA Arena. If all goes well the facility could be open to the public in late spring or early summer.

“It could go fairly quickly,” said Ron Merritt, Minot Parks director. “A lot can be done in one season.”

The project, which has been in the planning stages for several months, will include an 18 hole Frisbee golf course and a trail system for both mountain bikes and cross-country running. There will be some variations in trail choices for mountain biking enthusiasts. It is expected that area cross-country running teams will practice at the facility and stage competitive meets at the site.

“We’re excited to get started,” said Merritt. “We’ll make use of the huge MAYSA parking lot and staging area and there are restrooms inside the building.”

The starting points for both cross-country running and frisbee golf will be on the eastern edge of the existing parking lot at MAYSA, meaning there will be ample room for parking and gatherings prior to events. The improvements are being made in an area that was formerly a city landfill. Some of the land is owned by Minot Parks and some by the City of Minot.

“The city owns the actual landfill area, the cell where the dump used to be, and there’s park land around MAYSA Arena,” said Merritt. “There’s land on both sides of the project that are not part of the old landfill.”

Federal regulations required that the landfill area be covered and allowed to sit for an appropriate amount of time before being used for other purposes.

“There’s a demand for what we are proposing and public space available that is not being used,” explained Merritt. “We’re kind of reclaiming space for recreational purposes.”

Minot Parks has allocated money to the project. Additional money, if needed, would be raised by various interested groups or, possibly, said Merritt, through a grant application that he described as “not a super difficult project.”

Fencing, landscaping and other improvements are expected to follow the completion of the main elements of the project.