GRAND FORKS – The Grand Forks City Council voted against considering a merger between the city and the Grand Forks Park District during its meeting Monday night.
The proposal, introduced by Council President Dana Sande, was brought up during budget discussions as a way to potentially save taxpayer money. The council voted 4-2 against hiring a consultant to further investigate the matter. Only Council Member Tricia Lunski joined Sande in voting in favor of the investigation. Council Member Rebecca Osowski was absent.
Regardless of whether the council voted for the study, the City Council has no power to force a merger of the city and the Park District. The power rests solely with the Park District through resolution or voter petition, both followed by a citywide referendum. Park District Executive Director George Hellyer told the council there were better ways for both the district and the city to spend their time.
“I think it’s an inefficient use of taxpayer dollars and an inefficient use of staff resources and time to do the actual study, especially with the Altru Sports Complex coming online,” Hellyer said. “We’ve been operating under the current structure since 1905 and all cities in North Dakota with populations over 3,000 have the same structure we currently have.”
Many representatives of Grand Forks’ sports associations expressed concern that a merger would have a detrimental impact on the quality of the parks and the level of service currently offered.
“Our relationship with the Park District has been phenomenal for years,” said Jerod Seaver, president of the Grand Forks Youth Baseball Association. “They’ve worked with us to raise funds for everything we’ve needed in terms of equipment, so I’m a little nervous if there’s a change how that would impact the kids in our community.”
According to Sande, his proposal would leave the day-to-day operations of the Park District largely unchanged by making it a separate department and an extension of the city.
“They are both, individually and as a group, great stewards of our community,” Sande said. “I can imagine that if the Park District became a department within the city of Grand Forks, we could save taxpayers money by reducing staff. … I think we owe it to the taxpayers to look at this.”
Whether a merger between the city and the park district would save money is unknown. The park district raises property taxes to fund the city’s parks, and those funds would still have to come from other sources even if they were transferred to the city. City Manager Todd Feland estimated that a study would cost about $80,000, not including the time it would take city staff to create a requirement for a consultant’s qualifications.
Council member Ken Vein voted against the study, saying that the Grand Forks Park Board would be better able to manage the parks than the council.
“The council would make all of those decisions as they would drive budgets and programs and everything else that would happen, and I have a problem with that,” Vein said. “I like the fact that the park board members are specialists in their field … and I think our structure, which is visible across the state, works well.”
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Voigt reports on the government in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.
